By Stephen Smoot
Without a shadow of a doubt, data center construction and expansion of energy production to support them represent one of West Virginia’s best opportunities to bring economic development and enhanced tax revenues to the state.
As happens with the proposal of any development, the notion of constructing them brings out opposition, which the proposal of almost anything will. Opponents worry about the impact on scenery and other aspects of the natural environment.
Others fear that the consumption of power and water will overstrain resources and infrastructure of areas where they will be constructed.
Communities nationwide face these same discussions as the United States strives to keep pace with Red China and others in building the digital infrastructure required by artificial intelligence.
Enhanced energy production will happen, as will construction of data centers to expand digital capacity.
The question is, however, where.
The adoption of the right site selection strategy could help to assuage some of the concerns, although many oppose any development, anywhere, for any reason and officials must keep that in mind as well.
State and local officials when having these conversations should differentiate between residents of long-standing with legitimate concerns from CAVE people, or “citizens against virtually everything.” Usually CAVE people are professional activists who represent outside funded groups with a variety of agendas.
America’s Industrial Revolution spread quickly across the nation in a time before the impact of industrial, mining, and related sites was well known. Some sites with factories, mines, railyards, or other facilities, saw the leaching of chemicals into the soil, rendering the dirt itself toxic. Once the industrial use of the land ended, it remained unsuitable for residential, recreational, or agricultural uses.
About three decades ago, the United States Environmental Protection Agency launched an aggressive and widespread initiative to return these lands to productive and safe use. This would also reduce the potential for contamination from such sites to spread. Officials coined the term “brownfield” to refer to sites with various levels and types of contamination.
The EPA defines a brownfield as “real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence, or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. They also may serve as the perfect locations to place data centers and, if needed, supporting microgrid power plants..
First, locating data centers in brownfields that hosted major industrial, rail, or mining operations addresses the stated concerns of opponents.
Factories rose from the landscape quickly in the late 18 and early 1900s and tended to congregate in certain areas. When operations ceased, the brick walls started to crumble, the metal equipment rusted and fell apart. Vandals break windows and spread the appearance of decay.
Other sites remain in use and cleanup occurs alongside of operations.
The presence of older and abandoned sites can blight the appearance of the surrounding area, whether residential or business. A brand new structure will always look better than the years or decades old ruins of an industrial building or complex.
One can conclude that a site that once hosted a large factory or mining operation would also have consumed massive amounts of water and energy on a daily basis. One could presume in many cases that those conditions have not changed substantially. The fact that the land was already blighted by previous use only serves as one sound reason to explore this strategy. A number of grant and loan opportunities create incentives to develop these properties.
Assessment grants help recipients to lay the groundwork of studying the problem, planning out solutions, and working with the surrounding community. Cleanup Grants and a Revolving Loan Fund provide support to active efforts to clean up, or otherwise remediate, sites. For example, in May, New Baptist Church of Huntington received $500,000 to clean up a former CSX Rail Yard for their safe use.
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection maintains a Brownfields Revolving Fund. This program offers loans from “$25,000 up to available funds.” Preferred projects include those that increase “local and regional jobs and economic activity”, increases “tax revenue to support community economic revitalization,” and other criteria, including use of green energy infrastructure.
In Nitro, the site of the former Fike Chemical Company would appear to serve as an example of a solid candidate for cleanup in preparation for a data center, except for the fact that an industrial operation continues on site. Over a quarter of a century until 1983, different companies produced small batch chemical products. Even the most conscientious of operations will have some issues with chemicals and other toxic substances escaping containment.
According to the latest report on site cleanup efforts in 2022, “the Site consists of an 11.9-acre former batch chemical production plant (former Chemical Plant) property, a 0.9-acre former Cooperative Sewage Treatment Plant (former CST) property about 500 feet west of the Chemical Plant property . . . and contaminated groundwater attributed to releases from these two properties.”
Additionally it contained “chemical production areas, office and laboratory buildings, three waste lagoons, and drum and waste burial areas.” As one might expect, the drum and waste burial areas created the most problems as containers lost cohesion over time.
Contaminated areas where removal of materials was impractical received remediation, such as a large “asphalt cap” (functioning as a parking lot) to hold contaminated soils in place.
The Fike Chemical site is still in use, but many brownfields are not. The Kanawha Valley, areas of North Central West Virginia, the coalfields of Southern West Virginia and other parts of the state may also offer a number of good potential locations.
Brownfields could host a number of other economic development projects that have raised hackles in certain communities, again because these sites have not had a pristine natural or traditional agricultural aspect in decades in some cases.
It’s not often that serious economic development and environmental restoration go hand in hand.
Opinion pieces throw ideas out there for consideration. Many reasons may exist why this approach is not feasible. That said, if old industrial sites do make good fits, placing data centers and supporting elements to their operation in them could kill a number of birds with that single stone.
