Ypsilanti Community Utilities Authority board members on Wednesday approved a 12-month moratorium that bars the utility from delivering or committing water and sewer services to data centers in its service territory, according to the resolution adopted at the meeting. The utility said the pause is meant to allow environmental and water system studies to be completed as demand from resource-hungry computing facilities rises.
The moratorium affects “hyperscale and mid-size data centers,” along with artificial intelligence computing facilities and “high-performance computational centers,” the YCUA board resolution said. The YCUA supplies drinking water and sewer services to multiple communities across Washtenaw and Wayne counties, and it said its water and sewer capacity is limited.
The decision follows a request from Ypsilanti Township, where a $1.2-billion University of Michigan data center is planned. Ypsilanti Township Supervisor Brenda Stumbo and Ypsilanti Township Trustee Gloria Peterson both serve as YCUA commissioners, the story said, tying township leadership to the authority’s vote. Stumbo said the utility needs to be proactive about data-center water demand.
“Two large data centers could take our capacity just like that,” Stumbo said at Wednesday’s meeting. She added that eliminating capacity could prevent homes from being built or businesses from opening and creating jobs.
YCUA Executive Director Luke Blackburn told Planet Detroit in an email that while the wastewater system has room to absorb additional flows, the planning needed to support that growth is not up to date. Blackburn said the utility’s wastewater treatment plant has estimated excess capacity of 4 to 5 million gallons per day, but he said the YCUA’s last wastewater master plan dates to 2018 and an updated study is needed.
The YCUA resolution is also tied to the scope of proposed projects in the region, including the University of Michigan plan in Ypsilanti Township. The project is opposed by the township board, and the AP story says the township has taken steps to oppose the siting of the University of Michigan and Los Alamos National Laboratory’s effort at particular locations. The report also notes that as a public university, U of M is exempt from local zoning requirements, so the project does not require township approval.
The moratorium adds uncertainty to competing proposals within YCUA’s service territory as well. The AP story said that Thor Equities’ proposed $1-billion data center in Augusta Township falls within YCUA’s service territory, and that MLive reported last year the project could use 1 million gallons of water daily.
In response to questions about the moratorium and its effect on the university’s proposal, the University of Michigan issued an online statement that the project — which it calls a “high-performance computing facility” — will create 200 jobs and support public projects in medicine, climate science, energy and national security. A Los Alamos official told The Michigan Daily in January that it would perform nuclear weapons research at the proposed facility, the AP story said.
Wednesday’s vote drew support from residents and local officials concerned about how additional development would affect their neighborhoods. The report said about 10 residents and Ypsilanti City Councilmember Me’Chelle King spoke in favor of the moratorium, including Leah Mills-Chapman, who lives in Ypsilanti Township’s West Willow neighborhood and said the measure would help advance racial and environmental justice in an area that already faces foul odors and pollution.
The AP story said MiEJScreen, Michigan’s environmental justice screening tool, places West Willow in the 85th percentile for environmental justice concerns, while areas to its north are in the 88th percentile. It also said that in August, Ypsilanti Township’s board passed a resolution calling for the University of Michigan and Los Alamos to relocate the data center project away from a site near the Huron River and closer to West Willow, and that on March 31 the township board passed another resolution opposing the placement of the project anywhere in the township.
Outside Ypsilanti Township, Augusta Township resident Wendy Albers — who opposes Thor Equities’ data center plan — told the meeting she supported the moratorium. “There’s no one really protecting us and this (moratorium) could be a step to allow our communities to also have time to do their due diligence,” Albers said in remarks reported in the AP story.
The Associated Press reported the story as distributed through a partnership that originally published it via Planet Detroit.