“We can’t drink data! We can’t drink data,” chanted organizers outside the East Fishkill Town Hall Thursday.
Hours later, the Town Board unanimously voted to adopt a three-year freeze on data centers.
The vote came after a data center more than 10 times the scale of the largest existing data center in New York was proposed in the area by Treetop Development. However, that proposal no longer appears on the New York Independent System Operator’s interconnection queue.
During the public hearing before Town Board voted, dozens of residents and locals turned up to voice their support for the moratorium as resistance to data centers in support of the artificial intelligence boom has spread to communities across the country.
“It will use up and pollute our drinkable water sources, which I don't know if you know, but we literally need to survive,” said Rosemary De Cruz from For The Many before the meeting. “You know what we don't need to survive? A 1,000-megawatt data center. We can't allow it.”
Organizers with Food and Water Watch and For The Many spoke before the Town Board meeting. De Cruz said residents in the Hudson Valley are already struggling to pay their electricity bills and data centers would only add to the burden.
Treetop Development has not returned multiple requests for comment.
The resolution passed by the Town Board says data centers over 20 megawatts would not be permitted or considered in East Fishkill until July 2029. This extends two years past a possible state moratorium, which is still awaiting Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signature after passing the Legislature.
East Fishkill’s resolution refers to residents’ concerns about rising energy costs and says that ground water quality in the area has also been affected by three super fund sites.
Town Supervisor Nick D'Alessandro explained there has been no formal proposal made to the town for the 1 Gig Treetop Development data center and suggested the crowd take concerns to the governor. Resident Chris Frolick scolded D'Alessandro.
“I think it’s very blatantly obvious, if there is nothing else you take away from this, we don’t want it,” Frolick said as the crowd applauded.
Residents have pointed out there were more proposals on the New York Independent System Operator’s interconnection queue in East Fishkill in April. These included a 150-megawatt data center in iPark (By iPark East Fishkill LLC) and an 800-megawatt data center by East Fishkill Storage 1, LLC.
Meanwhile, in Orangeburg, New York, several hours south, Data Bank is proposing to expand its existing facility, which has also received lots of public pushback.
East Fishkill is the first county in the Hudson Valley to pass a moratorium on data centers, although other municipalities across New York like Oneonta have passed their own moratoriums. Allegany and Dryden in New York have passed permanent bans on new data centers.
Before the vote, Councilmember Marianne Flores said East Fishkill’s moratorium was not a permanent ban and that she is hoping the moratorium presents an opportunity to “put in place a task force composed of town planning and zoning representatives, utility experts, environmental professionals, engineers, local business leaders, and residents” so that future data center proposals can be approached with as much transparency as possible.
After the resolution passed, the crowd broke into applause and cheers. D'Alessandro tried to continue with the meeting with some difficulty as the crowd was more focused on celebrating.
