By Carol Hillestad for Brodhead Watershed Association
If you thought warehouses were a plague on the landscape, give your township a call and ask what the plan is for data centers. Because they’re on their way. Right now, Tobyhanna Township is considering changes to their zoning ordinance to allow data centers, and a property owner in the headwaters of the Swiftwater Creek hopes to attract one.
That’s a big deal. Not because it means good jobs — it doesn’t. Except for upfront construction jobs, data centers need very few employees.
It’s a big deal because a large data center can use 5,000,000 gallons of water a day. You read that right: five million gallons a day.
Data centers need to keep all those hyper energy-hog computers cool. To do that, they use water, which evaporates away into the atmosphere and is lost to us. Whether the water for cooling is pumped directly out of the ground on-site or comes from Brodhead Creek Regional Authority, evaporating it depletes our watershed.
So the big question is: what are they doing to conserve water? Specifically, will they use a closed-loop cooling system?
Zero-water or closed-loop systems can drastically reduce or eliminate evaporation. Once the system is filled with water, it continually moves that water between the hot equipment and air chillers that suck out accumulated heat — without continually pulling in more fresh water. Big data centers also consume 200 to 500 acres of land. You may not really care much about the loss of forested land, natural habitat, bears, deer, fish, and bird life. But the risk to safe, abundant drinking water should make everyone sit up and take notice. Water is essential to life. And it belongs to all of us.
Sept. 15 Tobyhanna Hearing
Tobyhanna Township Supervisors are amending their zoning ordinance to provide for data centers, and the hearing is on September 15, 2025.
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