What you need to know

• What Is a Data Center, and why is this a big deal?
• Lessons from Other Communities: What’s It Like to Live Next to a Data Center?
• Why here, why now?
• What Does the Community Gain, If Anything?
• Water Use: How Much Is at Stake?
• How much energy do these data centers really use?
• Who Decides if a Data Center Can Be Built?
• Is There Real-Life Precedent for Limiting Data Centers?

What Is a Data Center, and why is this a big deal?

A data center is a building that houses computer servers, disk drives, networking equipment, and other compute-related hardware. When you store something “in the cloud,” it’s actually being stored in a data center somewhere instead of directly on your phone, computer, or other device.

It’s important to note that the data centers of today are not the same as data centers twenty years ago. A data center is no longer just some building that a company uses to store proprietary data. Instead of simply holding a company’s data, they may churn data belonging to thousands, maybe millions of customers, running nonstop and fueling the global digital economy. This means that these data centers also have massive power and water requirements for running and cooling those servers.

You can see Cumberland County’s definition of a Hyperscale data center, here:

Hyperscale data centers are massive facilities that house critical computing and network infrastructure that provides scalability and high-speed processing for large volumes of data. Consuming several hundred acres of land and including several million square feet of building space, these facilities allow big companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft to deliver key services to customers worldwide. – Planning for Data Centers, Cumberland County Planning Department (emphasis added)

Lessons from Other Communities: What’s It Like to Live Next to a Data Center?

We don’t have to wonder. Our neighbors in Virginia already know. Northern Virginia, home to the world’s largest concentration of data centers, has faced water shortages, power strain, and community disruptions as facilities have multiplied. Much of the East Coast’s AI and cloud capacity runs through that area, and the impacts on residents are real.

People living near these campuses report constant noise, odd smells, power flickers, and water pressure issues. If you want a sense of what that looks and feels like, hear it directly from residents:

Why here, why now?

At the national level, in July 2025 President Trump issued an executive order to fast-track data center buildouts by both lowering barriers to entry and creating financial incentives to build these facilities nationally. Later that same month, he joined Senator Dave McCormick at Carnegie Mellon University to announce billions in AI-related investments, framing Pennsylvania as a future tech leader. The push is being positioned as part of an “AI race against China” and as a way to revive coal and gas industries in the state.

It also doesn’t hurt that Pennsylvania amended its Computer Data Center Equipment Exemption Program in 2021 to exempt computer equipment from sales and use tax, making the state more attractive to developers. These political and financial signals combine to cast Pennsylvania as a new frontier for the industry.

Location-wise, you aren’t likely to see any data centers being built out in fully rural, undeveloped areas. Data centers are hungry for existing power, data, water, and sewer infrastructure, all of which Cumberland County could provide. Developers seem to like building data centers directly next to sources of power, avoiding the cost and difficulty of new transmission lines. As one executive explained, “What makes us so excited about this area is this idea that you can collocate the data centers directly next to the source of power… because building transmission lines, building pipelines, that’s really difficult” (PennLive, July 15, 2025). Cumberland County is home to a number of the high-voltage transmission lines he is talking about. (Planning for Data Centers, Cumberland County Planning Department)

Cumberland County is also situated in a strategic position relative to major East Coast cities and Virginia’s “Data Center Alley.” It is also classified by FEMA as a “safe area,” meaning that there isn’t a high probability a natural disaster would put the data center in harm’s way (Planning for Data Centers, Cumberland County Planning Department. Unlike fully built-out regions, Cumberland County still has large undeveloped parcels of land that can support sprawling campuses.

But these facilities are not being placed in isolated deserts. They are being sited near existing neighborhoods, farmland, and waterways. In Middlesex Township, the overlay district created for data centers borders the Conodoguinet Creek and sits close to residential developments like Cumberland Preserve Estates and Country Manor West. That means the impacts of this industry shift will be felt directly in local communities.

What Does the Community Gain, If Anything?

Developers often highlight benefits like jobs and tax revenue, but the reality is far more limited.

Jobs: Most of the employment tied to data centers is temporary construction work: jobs that already exist and are in demand regardless of whether these facilities are built. Once operational, hyperscale data centers require very few long-term employees relative to their size. As the Planning for Data Centers report notes, they generate far fewer jobs per square foot than other types of development.

The 18-building data center slated for development in Middlesex Township will have only 255 permanent jobs, according to PennLive (Cumberland County could become home to region’s first large scale data storage complex).While these projects may be framed as putting Pennsylvania on the map for AI and tech, in truth they are more about infrastructure than building a skilled AI workforce.

Tax Revenue: Townships may see some increase in tax base, but this must be weighed against the long-term costs such as infrastructure strain, energy demand, and environmental impact.

Traffic: Unlike warehouses or residential developments, data centers don’t flood local roads with daily traffic. While that’s a modest positive, it doesn’t outweigh the ecological tradeoffs, particularly when facilities consume vast amounts of electricity and water.

In short, the community receives few lasting benefits while shouldering most of the risks and impacts.

Water Use: How Much Is at Stake?

Keeping thousands of servers cool is one of the biggest challenges for any data center. Companies usually rely on fans, water, or a mix of both. Each system has tradeoffs.

• Air cooling: Fans push heat out of the building. This avoids heavy water use, but it’s energy intensive and can generate loud noise that neighbors complain about (Washington Post).
• Water cooling: Cheaper and more efficient than air cooling, but it puts enormous pressure on local water supplies. Large hyperscale facilities can consume up to 5 million gallons per day, which is the same as a town of 10,000–50,000 people (EESI).

There are different types of water systems:

• Evaporative cooling uses a constant supply of fresh water that absorbs server heat, turns to steam, and is vented away. Once vented, that water is considered “consumed”. That means it’s gone (The Conversation).
• Closed-loop systems recirculate water, using air-cooled chillers to bring it back down to temperature. These systems can cut freshwater use by up to 70%, but they burn a lot more electricity to run the chillers.

Water demand also changes with the seasons. In winter, some facilities can rely more on air cooling. In summer, when cooling needs are highest, water consumption spikes just as residential demand also peaks.

The risks for communities are real:

• Aquifers, wells, and streams may face depletion.
• Municipal systems may need costly upgrades to handle demand.
• Longer, hotter summers driven by climate change will likely push cooling needs and water consumption even higher over time.

In short, data centers aren’t just competing for electricity; they’re competing for the same water resources local residents, farmers, and ecosystems depend on.

How much energy do these data centers really use?

Hyperscale data centers are staggering energy consumers. The project slated for Middlesex Township is designed for 1.35 gigawatts (GW) of capacity, with the option to expand to 1.8 GW (PowerHouse Data Centers). To put that in perspective, 1 GW can power about 750,000 homes (CNET). At full load, this single data center could draw as much electricity as all 112,477 housing units in Cumberland County TEN TIMES OVER (U.S. Census Bureau).

This scale of demand doesn’t just strain the grid. It risks prioritizing industry over residents. Rates are already being affected by new data center loads, as utilities pass on infrastructure and transmission costs to ordinary customers (via More Perfect Union on YouTube). Backup diesel generators used for testing also raise air quality concerns for surrounding communities.

Grid experts are sounding the alarm. In August 2025, the market monitor for PJM Interconnection (the grid operator serving 65 million people across 13 states) warned that there is “no spare supply for new data centers” and recommended requiring developers to build their own power plants to avoid destabilizing the system. Their report stated bluntly:

“The current supply of capacity in PJM is not adequate to meet the demand from large data center loads and will not be adequate in the foreseeable future.” Monitoring Analytics LLC, State of the Market Report 2025

Who Decides if a Data Center Can Be Built?

Townships don’t decide to build data centers themselves. What happens is a developer buys land and submits a plan to the township for approval.

The Board of Supervisors (in second-class townships) or the Board of Commissioners (in first-class townships) has the final say on whether to approve a developer’s plan. For more detail on these boards and other roles, see our Municipal Government overview.

Before reaching the board, plans often go to the Planning Commission, which reviews proposals and makes recommendations. In some cases, projects may also come before a Zoning Hearing Board if variances, exceptions, or zoning changes are required.

One important point: if a data center is permitted “by right” under existing zoning, the township has little room to reject it. Denial in that case risks a lawsuit from the developer

Is There Real-Life Precedent for Limiting Data Centers?

Yes. Communities across the country are already pushing back and finding ways to regulate data centers rather than accept them on developers’ terms, using tools like size caps, renewable energy requirements, water-use limits, and mandatory monitoring and reporting.

A recent example comes from Jessup, Pennsylvania, which passed an ordinance in August 2025 to strictly regulate future data center development (The Times-Tribune). Their ordinance created a special zoning overlay that:

• Requires data centers to be built only on industrial land above a specific highway,
• Makes them a conditional use (not by-right), meaning developers must go through a public hearing and prove compliance with strict conditions, and
• Sets expectations around renewable energy projects like solar and wind.

This happened because Jessup’s local officials did their research and acted before developers got too far ahead.

Nationally, resistance is growing. According to Data Center Watch, 142 activist groups in 24 states have organized since 2023, using strategies from lawsuits to grassroots social media campaigns. Their combined efforts have already stalled or stopped $64 billion worth of projects. News outlets like Yahoo Finance report that local communities have proven to be one of the most effective checks on unchecked growth.

The lesson: townships and boroughs are not powerless. With proactive ordinances and informed citizens, communities can set the terms or even stop data centers altogether.