AI has its avaricious eye on a tract of land near you.

After overcoming multiple threats within just this past decade, the Montour Preserve is again facing uncertainty.

Talen Energy, the owner, is asking to rezone 870 acres surrounding the preserve for industrial use. Though plans are still under wraps (through use of non disclosure agreements), many believe Talen wants to construct a sprawling, multi-building data center near land that has served as a nature preserve and a family-friendly community treasure for over 50 years.

Residents from small towns across Pennsylvania are crowding into municipal meeting rooms to say No to data centers.

Data centers are the work horses for AI, an industry developing the robotic technology that, while enriching the already-rich, will take away our jobs and raise our electric bills.

Data centers require massive amounts of energy and water, resources that will be used not to heat our homes but to support an industry that thinks nothing about raiding small towns for their land and their access to water reserves.

Data centers discharge their toxic wastewater into nearby bodies of water, endangering groundwater aquifers that are already stressed from drought, potentially degrading drinking water quality, and diminishing a valuable agricultural resource.

Decisions about where to locate data centers are being made behind closed doors, with little input from potentially impacted communities.

Recently, in a packed meeting room, over 300 local residents, insisting on being heard, said No to Talen Energy’s plan. In response, the Montour County Planning Commission rejected Talen’s rezoning request. The Montour County Commissioners will issue a final decision in the near future.

A data center will drastically reshape our region, raise our electric bills, and threaten our water – all to increase corporate profit. The future meeting will be public. Let’s plan to attend.

KAREN ELIAS

Lock Haven

Submitted byVirtual Newsroom