There has been growing concern from the Ypsilanti Township community over the University of Michigan’s plans to construct two data centers on Textile Road.
Community members are urging the Ypsilanti Township Board of Trustees to take action to prevent Los Alamos Laboratory and U-M from building data centers along the Huron River.
Vidhya Aravind is an organizer for the "Stop the Data Center" campaign. She says the 200 jobs planned to be created by the facilities probably won't be filled by locals and will instead go to out-of-county residents and remote workers. She adds the centers are projected to have a significant environmental impact.
“It will consume an immense amount of water for both quantum computing and any AI research. The noise and light pollution will be horrible!”
Aravind says similar initiatives have successfully prevented data centers from coming to their communities, but this campaign depends on local officials' support to be effective.
WEMU has contacted members of the Ypsilanti Township Board of Trustees for comments but none have responded, as of yet.
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