When construction began on Amazon’s massive data center in the small rural county of Frederick, Maryland, community activist Elizabeth Bauer felt good about it.
But when it expanded by about 1,000 acres beyond its original plan to dig up green space and farmland without addressing the concerns of local residents, she took a stance.
She, along with other local residents, is protesting the construction site’s proximity to residential areas. She says that creates dust and pollution, which worsens residents’ asthma.
Protesters in Frederick demand that their farmland be used for agriculture, not for data centers Image: Elizabeth Bauer
“It’s OK to have data centers in the right places, but it’s OK to have data centers take away prime agricultural land,” Bauer said.
Protests against data centers intensify
There is a growing bipartisan backlash against data centers in the United States, with demonstrations taking place across the country to demand action from politicians.
Flashpoints include the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia. There are currently approximately 640 data centers listed in Virgina alone.
These conflicts not only relate to the construction phase, but also have long-term consequences. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, data centers require an enormous amount of energy to operate, equivalent to the power needed to power 100,000 homes.
But those under construction can consume 20 times more. This is primarily due to the increased demand for data storage and processing power needed to support the development and use of AI.
Overall, data centers account for 4.4% of U.S. electricity, which is expected to grow by up to 8.5% by the end of 2027, according to a study by investment banking firm Goldman Sachs.
Data centers consume electricity and water
The fighting in Frederick reflects tensions across the United States. There are already 4,600 data centers in the United States, about 1,000 more than the next 10 countries combined.
Considering that nearly 40% of Americans live within a five-mile radius of at least one home, and more than 1,500 more are under construction, that number is likely to grow. Nowhere else in the world are concentrations higher than in North Virginia.
This is all happening against a backdrop of dissatisfaction, with a recent Gallup poll showing that 71% of the population opposes data center development in their region.
Data centers use up to 5 million gallons of water each day (equivalent to a city of 50,000 people). However, it is not uncommon for them to be built in areas exposed to water stress. Frederick County is experiencing severe drought, according to the National Drought Monitoring Agency.
Francesca Dominici, a professor of biostatistics at Harvard School of Public Health, said tech companies also consistently ignore this concern.
“They don’t take water issues into account at all,” she told DW. “They are prioritizing where they can get land cheaper and where they can get local politicians to approve it faster.”
Rising fuel costs and air pollution
In states with high concentrations of data centers, electricity prices have increased by 267% over the past five years.
Residents attend a town hall rally to protest data center plans here in Kenmore, New York Image: Craig Ruttle/Sipa USA/picture Alliance
“Power companies are building a ton of new power lines to serve data centers,” says Hannah Wiseman, an environmental law professor at Penn State University. “But the cost of these transmission lines is becoming socialized among ratepayers.”
There are also concerns that data centers could overload the power grid, forcing them to rely on backup diesel generators. For the Frederick area, the planned center would have 99 diesel generators, which poses health risks.
“Exposure to fine particulate matter, even at low levels, means an increased risk of birth defects, respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, neurocognitive disease, and premature death,” Dominici, the Harvard University professor, said, adding that they also threaten local wildlife and minimize plant growth and yield.
How are data centers regulated?
Despite the negative impact on local communities, Wiseman said data center locations are primarily overseen at the local government level, and many states provide data center developers with a regulatory environment that allows for rapid development, regardless of proximity to people or nature.
“Many local governments choose not to issue land use regulations, which allows data center developers to do pretty much whatever they want.”
At the federal level, President Donald Trump eliminated red tape for data center development as part of his 2025 executive order, “Removing Barriers to U.S. Leadership in AI.”
Many high-tech companies have insisted that communities sign non-disclosure agreements to limit community understanding of the project’s scale and widespread resource-consuming impacts.
So instead of soliciting residents’ input, they are working directly with local government officials to develop the plan.
Data centers and the global water crisis
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Wiseman also noted that tech companies and developers are increasingly working with state governments to set zoning and power consumption standards.
“They have been involved in all the state regulatory processes for establishing special electricity rates for data centers,” she said. “Technology companies now appear to be getting more involved in a number of state legislative proposals to preempt local control.”
How tech companies respond to backlash
While technology companies claim data centers boost local economies, a University of Michigan study found that data centers create temporary construction jobs in local communities, but not long-term technology jobs.
There are also suggestions that these companies are trying to build trust with local communities. In March, Microsoft stopped using NDAs with local governments to develop data centers, saying it wanted to further build trust with neighboring countries. And Meta said it is trialling low-carbon concrete in data center construction.
Why are people throwing AI data centers into the ocean?
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Dominici said she sees a “win-win future path” that combines technological advances with community benefits. “We would like to see a bipartisan scientific evaluation of all the impacts so that data centers can act on the basis of minimizing this impact as much as possible.”
apply the brakes, at least temporarily
And it appears that protests in the local community have been successful. Just last week, New York became the first U.S. state to suspend construction of new large data centers for up to a year. Temporary bans have been proposed in other states, and some counties and local governments have issued their own temporary bans.
In Frederick, Bauer and fellow activists continue to protest against data centers being built in their backyards. They gathered enough signatures to propose making the ordinance the subject of a referendum in county elections, but such an idea was struck down by the Maryland Supreme Court.
In response to the headwinds, the county announced a moratorium on new data center construction, but Bauer feels the democratic process has failed Frederick residents.
“Ordinary citizens don’t have a chance,” she says. “This whole effort wasn’t about fighting data centers, it was about giving people a voice.”
Despite the challenges, Bauer still sees hope. She said there are county council candidates who oppose expansion in the upcoming Frederick election.
“If we get a new council, we could completely overturn this map,” she said. “We are disappointed, but we are not giving up.”
Editing: Tamsin Walker, Sarah Steffen
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