For most of the several hundred people who attended a data center forum in Nye County, one thing was clear — large-scale data centers are not welcome.
Saturday’s Nye County Data Center Forum at the Nye County Commissioners’ Chambers in Pahrump drew an overflow crowd.
“I had no idea this many would show up,” Commissioner Bruce Jabbour remarked as the event got underway, eliciting a rumble of wry laughter from the gathering.
Russ Meads, a local developer working on the controversial data center project known as Manse Technology Campus, was one of the first speakers. The proposed 900-acre data center campus would be located in the south end of the Pahrump Valley.
“I’ve lived here over 30 years in the valley, my family lives here. We want to continue to live here generationally, so obviously, I want nothing that is going to harm our community,” Meads said.
Meads did not address specific concerns or points during the forum, instead referring residents to another data center discussion that they will have the chance to attend next week. “On August 3, we’ll be able to share some actual engineering and some facts and have some back and forth. I hope everybody – both sides – takes the opportunity,” Meads said.
As for the remainder of the turnout, the overwhelming majority spoke out against data centers and aired their concerns about water use in an area with limited resources, potential contamination of the valley’s sole-source aquifer, noise pollution, environmental impacts, strain on local infrastructure and more, with only a couple of people speaking in favor of these developments.
Martin Zam, who said he has spent 46 years designing, building and operating data centers, told the crowd that data centers do not make good neighbors.
“I worked in and around them for so many years and I cannot think of a single example where the neighborhood has benefited from having a data center local to it,” Zam said.
As for Melody Keith, she asserted that she wants to keep an open mind but her most pressing concern is a lack of information on the long-term impacts of the large data centers that have been seeing a pushback as they attempt to enter communities across the country.
“If the rest of the country doesn’t want data centers, why should we have it? We need to know more about it,” she declared, adding, “We’re not a dump site.”
The team behind Manse Technology Campus will also be hosting its own public forum on its proposal, which is set for 6 p.m. on Aug. 3 at the Pahrump Nugget Events Center.
The following day, during its regular meeting, the Nye County Commission will hold a public hearing on a bill put forward by Commissioner Ian Bayne that aims to ban data centers from any town in the county that does not have its own elected town board.
Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com.
Leave A Comment