Residents in Vineland packed a town hall to question DataOne’s proposed AI-focused data center, drilling into water, power, noise, and pollution.
The CEO pitched a “closed-loop” condensation system for water and insisted the facility would pay its own power costs so local electric bills would not rise.
He framed existing data centers as inefficient and polluting, claiming this build will be different, but offered little technical detail the public could validate.
Locals pushed for concrete, enforceable commitments on water use and long-term accountability, signaling skepticism toward verbal assurances and slideware.
The project sits in a low-income community, so promises of jobs and produce donations landed with some, but others stressed that trust requires more than “you’ve got my word.”
Regulatory approvals are still pending, and the community clearly wants binding conditions on resource usage before another AI data center gets greenlit.
Worth a read if you track how local resistance and permitting risk could shape where and how AI data center capacity actually gets built.
