Abby Spindelman shares her opposition to the data centers project on Thursday evening at the Alabama Fire Hall. The public hearing lasted 5 hours.
Story and photos by Brian Quinn
The public registered its opposition to a $19.46 billion data center plan, filling the Alabama fire hall on Thursday, while a vehicle outside showed rotating messages in favor of it.
By the time the public hearing began around 7 p.m., people had claimed every seat in the Alabama fire hall. There were residents lining the wall near the door, with more people standing to the sides. They were there to make or hear comments about a STREAM U.S. Data Centers’ proposal to build three data centers on Crosby Road in Alabama, on a 2.2 million-square-foot portion of the Western New York Science & Technology Advanced Manufacturing Park (STAMP).
The first speaker Thursday, Tonawanda Seneca Nation Sitting Chief of the Bear Clan, Scott Logan
“I, 100%, say ‘No’ to the data center and ‘No’ to STAMP also,” said Scott Logan, the sitting chief of the Tonawanda Seneca Nation Bear Clan. “It doesn’t make any sense to me to have an industrial park, right smack dab in the middle of four wildlife management areas and the Tonawanda Seneca Nation. It really makes no sense to me from a humanity standpoint. I feel that a lot of the paperwork you guys have submitted … That’s what’s missing from it all, is humanity. You’re not thinking about, in seven generations, what’s not going to be over there anymore.”
Genesee County Economic Development Center President and CEO Mark Masse gives the project presentation to start Thursday’s public hearing.
In presenting the project, Genesee County Economic Development Center President and CEO Mark Masse said the project would create 125 jobs once operations begin, with an average annual salary of $88,000. Each two-story data center building would be 733,338 square feet, in total, and 64 feet high. The cost-benefit analysis says the 125 jobs and 45 additional skilled trades careers anticipated for service providers would add $14 million in local payroll in the first year of operations. This would total more than $564 million in payroll over 30 years. An independent third-party analysis calculates an additional $278 million in payroll would be indirectly generated during construction and operation of STREAM US Data Centers.
Genesee County Economic Development Center Executive Vice President of Business & Workforce Development Chris Suozzi presents some of the project information
The analysis estimates $285.8 million in new revenue for host municipalities and schools. STREAM has agreed to pay $7 million in base annual Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT)/host payments to Genesee County, the town of Alabama and the Oakfield-Alabama Central School District. Those payments would increase by a fixed 2% annually, totaling more than $283.9 million in new revenue over 30 years.
The project is expected to need about 20,000 gallons of water per day. A 2017 water supply agreement between Genesee County and GCEDC states that about 200,000 gallons of water per day are available for STAMP.
Masse said the GCEDC and the companies pay for infrastructure, not rate payers.
Logan said those involved with the project are just thinking about the current situation.
“You’re just thinking about me, right now, today, until I die and ‘What can I get out of it?’ he said. “It’s not, ‘I have to keep this world going. I have to keep this environment continuing because it’s my home.”
STREAM can build a data center somewhere else, Logan said.
“As a matter of fact, do that. Build it somewhere else,” he added, to applause and cheers from the crowd behind him. “We know too little about it – that and AI (artificial intelligence), for that matter, too.”
His son, Grandell Logan, a member of the Tonawanda Seneca Nation Snipe Clan, noted that STREAM had said noise levels would not exceed 65 decibels.
“The noise, STREAM Data Centers says 65 is acceptable,” Grandell Logan said, adding the company minimizes that by saying it’s the equivalent of a conversation.
“There’s no telling what effect this is going to have on the area,” he said.
Valerie Parker-Campbell, who came to the meeting with her son, Odin, age 1. Holding him as she spoke, Parker-Campbell said she would need to speak above the three-minute limit speakers were given because she was speaking for two people – her and her son.
“I am speaking because we are definitely ‘No’ to STAMP and the data center,” she said.
Parker-Campbell, like other speakers Thursday night, talked about the future.
“It’s not for certain that my child is going to have something to hunt,” she said, adding it’s not certain that Odin will have anything to fish for.
One of the signs held up at the hearing read, “They can’t eat data centers! They can’t drink data centers!” Another had the words “STAMP PROJECT” with a diagonal line through them.
Tonawanda Seneca Nation member Melissa Smith said she urged a STREAM U.S. Data Centers representatives to withdraw the application.
“I care about all the land. That doesn’t stop at my borders,” she said. “I am ready to fight for this area. It’s not done.”
Corfu resident Matthew Orleman said he was at Thursday’s hearing fighting for his children and for the Tonawanda Seneca Nation.
Diane Ciurczak takes her turn at the podium during Thursday night’s hearing.
Among the organizations Diane Ciurczak of Buffalo said she represents is the Sierra Club. She said the club opposes the financial incentives STREAM requests and urged the GCEDC to reject the incentive package.
Submitted photo Chelsea Bianchi
There were some at the public hearing who may not have spoken, but supported the data center project. One man was behind the wheel of a vehicle parked along the shoulder of Judge Road in front of the fire hall. On the side of the vehicle were electronic messages, including “Local 435 Supports STAMP!” and another about how important this construction project is for Genesee County. The Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) Local 435, based in Rochester, represents 885 workers in the building and construction trades in Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Orleans, Seneca, Wayne and Wyoming counties, according to the Rochester-Genesee Valley Area Labor Federation website.
The man, who did not give his name, said there were building trades workers – sheet metal, bricklayers, laborers, carpenters and painters – at the public hearing.
One of them, Robert Sotir of Batavia, said he didn’t speak, but had been inside, listening to the hearing. The bricklayer noted the jobs and opportunities that come with the proposed data center project.
“We’ve got to keep up with the technology. A lot of places in this country want infrastructure,” Sotir said outside the fire hall. “AI’s coming, so why not be part of it? You can’t hide from technology.”
The Batavia resident said he trusts that regulatory agencies wouldn’t allow a project like this to destroy the environment.
“There’s a lot of regulation in New York State,” he said.
Cheryl Cordes of Alabama gets her message across while listening to speakers Thursday night.
We can be rich in those things we afford to leave alone. Elba, Oakfield and Byron have been plundered by the gcedc, big solar and Albany’s climate change cult. Now big tech, big finance, big government and the gcedc want to steam roll Alabama.
Can the gcedc guarantee that: 1) electricity bills won’t increase for consumers 2) that the ground water won’t be depleted or contaminated, 4) all that water vapor from the cooling towers won’t effect down wind micro climate’s and 5) ai’s hallucinations won’t subvert and undermine humanity as we know it?
Currently, big data’s experiments haven’t been tested out over a long enough time line to see how they will reconcile with nature, nature will not be fooled…
So many dilapidated buildings in industrial areas that need to come down in Batavia, Buffalo and other areas. This project has nor been thought through environmentally. It should absolutely be built somewhere else