Alerted by the moratorium on data centers the Muncy Township board had approved at its April meeting, Christine Weigle, executive director of the Lycoming County Water and Sewer Authority (LCWSA) filed a Right to Know (RTK) on behalf of the authority, to find out if the township had received an application for a center.

“The moratorium by Muncy Township regarding data centers – very specific to data centers – raised questions with the residents that were at that meeting and within the community and it did prompt us to request the information if it was available,” Weigle said.

“The water industry recognizes the demands associated with data centers, and advance planning would better position us to address questions for a data center seeking a location within our service area,” she stated.

The township’s response to her RTK was a no, there had been no plans received for a data center.

“We were initially told that there wasn’t any, and maybe that was an interpretation of what they deemed materials, or because there was a moratorium, whatever the reason was, we were told no in our Right to Know Request and that prompted an appeal,” she said.

Monday some of the information was posted on the Office of Open Records portal, signaling that the Weigle had won the appeal.

Weigle explained that the authority needs to know if there are plans for a data center in their service area.

“We’re interested in early review of any plans or details or applications that the township, or any municipality that we work in, to receive those for planning purposes certainly within any industry like data center, where it is a hot topic,” she said.

“There is a lot of discussion about electricity use and water use and other things related to impacts on the environment and communities, which we don’t get involved in, but because our industry recognizes the demands that are being placed on water utilities, we really did want some advanced planning and advanced notice so that we could be able to answer questions when something did come up formally,” she said.

“LCWSA is certainly interested in early review of plans, details, applications, or even “materials” received by the Township for our planning purposes,” she stated.

“While we don’t have a say in zoning and land use, LCWSA supports growth and development in a manner consistent with the municipality. Early planning is valuable for any development with substantial water or sewage needs,” she said.

Through the materials that she received from the township, Weigle indicated that she believes the application is a preliminary opinion because it says for water and sewer, to be determined.

“So, they don’t know yet . I think that maybe they’re just looking to see if they can site it in that location and then they’d be able to make a determination…it’s early in the process. We don’t know that much yet, but we’re certainly interested, given the public interest about a moratorium,” she said.

She pointed out that the authority needs to be prepared so that they can answer questions that the public may have.

“I don’t like to be blindsided, especially for something that may have a high water use or a high demand,” she said.

Weigle, who has participated in a number of industry webinars about data centers, said that what they’re finding about them is that they will say they have a high demand, but “the data center industry is really striving to lower the water demand.”

“It’s a balance between the electricity usage to cool water that they may store on site versus taking in additional water…the balance between electricity and water usage, is they’re using water for cooling their equipment, and they recycle it, but cooling that water back down takes the energy, so there’s the energy demand. So I do believe the players in the data industry understand this, and they are working to lower electricity usage and lower water usage,” she said.