ROCKINGHAM — An environmental law firm has filed a petition for a contested case hearing related to the Amazon Data Center project.
The Southern Environmental Law Center filed the petition Sept. 25 on behalf of the Richmond County Coalition for Justice and Black Empowerment challenging air quality permits issued in late August by the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality Division of Air Quality.
Two permits were issued — one to Amazon and the other to Duke Energy
The Amazon permit allows 588 backup engines to operate — during power outages and "limited periods of maintenance, testing and activation” — at the site on Airport Road, south of Hamlet.
The Duke permit allows for 57 temporary “bridge power” engines to provide electricity — up to 364 days — until Amazon’s data center is connected to the power grid.
During the public hearing in July, an attorney with SELC questioned why the permits were split.
In a press release announcing the petitions, the SELC argues that “the two permits to operate the generators paid for by Amazon and located on the same Amazon property illegally evade Clean Air Act requirements for the combined air pollution which poses significant health risks for nearby communities.”
“No one wants their family and kids breathing deadly soot pollution from 649 diesel-fired generators,” Caroline Cress, senior attorney at SELC, said in the press release.
“One of the wealthiest companies in the world can and should find ways to limit its harmful pollution of the air we breathe instead of trying to evade the law to power a massive data center,” Cress added. “Significant amounts of harmful air pollution from data centers and regulated monopoly utility, Duke Energy, are not welcome additions to North Carolina’s communities.”
Shaun Ingram, co-founder of the Richmond County Coalition for Justice and Black Empowerment, said in the press release that the community is “already exposed to multiple air pollution sources and struggling for access to healthcare.”
“...what happens to people when one of the world’s wealthiest companies spews even more harmful pollution from 649 diesel-fired generators for its data center?” Ingram asked. “Richmond County is our home and ancestral lands yet Amazon’s permit from the state would make our air even more polluted when people here already can’t breathe, and carry around asthma pumps and oxygen tanks.”
Several representatives of Richmond County Coalition for Justice and Black Empowerment also spoke during the July public hearing.
SELC says there is a risk that Amazon could exceed its permitted emissions in the event of an extended power outage.
In an Oct. 2 post to the company’s website, Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman said the notion that data centers emit large amounts of pollution with the generators is a myth.
“Most of the services consumers, businesses, and governments rely on every day (e.g., 911 calls, stock markets, healthcare and banking apps, ride-hailing apps like Uber and Lyft, ChatGPT) depend on data centers functioning,” Garmen said. “As a result, data centers have backup power available in case of a power outage. Some do this through diesel generators that sit idle most of the year.”
Garmen noted that when generators are installed, companies are required to obtain permits for “the full potential emissions”
“Critics then see those permits and say things like ‘…the generators could emit up to 249.9 tons per year each of nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds,’” Garman said. “The truth is data center generators almost never run. They’re idle 99.9% of the time (they run roughly 10 hours per year, mostly for required maintenance testing). And even when backup generators do run, much of the industry now uses Tier 4 emission controls (the cleanest EPA emission standard), so annual NOx emissions from an average data center are the same as a single round trip flight from Seattle to London.”
Roger Wehner, Amazon's vice president for Economic Development, said something similar in a late August op-ed.
A DEQ spokesman told the RO in an email on Oct. 8 that the agency doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
