Another large crowd is expected at tonight’s Ypsilanti Township Board of Trustees meeting as the controversy regarding the proposed University of Michigan data center continues.
The data center is not on the agenda, but that’s not likely to deter the opponents of the project.
Last month, U-M purchased about 124 acres off Textile Road for the center. It’s a $1.2 billion project in association with the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition Policy Director Andrea Pierce says there are many problems with the university’s proposal.
“The plan is to use the water from the lake, and they use it to cool down their servers and their machines. From what I’ve been reading, they put it back in the lake a lot of times, not as much because it burns off from the heat. But it’s not clean all the time.”
Another issue is that it will be a large parcel that will not be paying property taxes since it’s owned by the university.
UPDATE - In a statement U-M says the facility will not draw from or discharge into the Huron River. All cooling water will be purchased from local municipal utilities, and sanitary discharge will also be handled through the municipal system. U-M also says a new DTE substation will be designed and built to fully accommodate the facility’s energy needs, and the availability of electricity to adjacent businesses and residences will not be impacted.
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