By Remy Cox

In a massive win for environmental activism and preservation, a one-year moratorium has recently been unanimously passed in Canton, North Carolina, preventing data centers or other large-scale operations like cryptocurrency mining from potential installation in the massive industrial complex that once housed the Canton Fiber Company.

In the so-called “Age of AI” we find ourselves in, data center contracts are creeping into small towns nationwide. These contracts, when awarded, have astronomical impacts on locals’ daily lives. One of the most common critiques of AI is water usage, but what is the material effect of that? In the communities left in the shadow of data centers, the massive water usage that the server cooling demands can overpower local water systems that were not build with such high usage in mind, meaning residents are left with the contaminated, unsafe water from the bottom of reservoirs, all the while the water used for cooling is effectively poisoned for human use. Furthermore, residents are forced to foot a higher bill for both water and increased power demand to account for data centers’ heightened power draw.

Thus, considering the high communal cost and the relatively low reward of data centers in rural communities—the number of potential jobs brought to the community are negligible, and not lasting—it’s surely a good thing for both the people of Canton and for the environment that they’ve put a stop such development, at least for now.

For more, see this article from WFAE.