The new year 2026 will bring important opportunities for us to speak about the proposed data center including AI as discussed in my previous recent blogs. Here’s the first of my planned three minute speeches to the Apex Town Council to be given on January 13- please drop me a comment if you would like to make any suggestions:

Hello Mr. Mayor and Town Council. Happy New Year. My name is Bill Dam and I live at…

The more I learn about data centers the more concerned I’ve become. My environmental science career includes working on nuclear issues and artificial intelligence is being compared to the Manhattan Project made famous in the Oppenheimer movie showing the rush to build and use atomic weapons. I have a neighbor in Jordan Manors who grew up downwind from above ground nuclear testing; he told me that many of his classmates contracted and died from leukemia attributable to atomic testing. Weapons and machines don’t love us, but we love getting to know our neighbors.

Not only is the arms race similar but consider the ransomware cyber-attack on the Town of Apex utility causing billing problems which must have gone through an existing data center. Is that a precursor of the future? What about deepfake videos, junk email, and the Merriam-Webster 2025 word of the year “slop” defined as low-quality, mass-produced digital content. Are these products worth trading for our precious resources including air, energy, money, soil and water?

Proposed hyperscale data centers with enormous appetites are proliferating around the country including here in Apex which in my opinion as a non-lawyer violates federal laws such as the National Environmental Policy Act. We trust you the town council will abide by laws and moral values including the principle of Love thy Neighbor.

· We love our families and want to protect our homes.

· We love our children and grandchildren who should not have to breathe pollution from diesel generators or burning fossil fuels increasing risk of asthma and cancer.

· Our pets and wildlife should not be subjected to harmful noise and vibrations 24/7 but the developer’s consultant is only looking at noise levels impacting human hearing.

· We care for our landscaping, but droughts and data center demands could kill our vegetation.

You’ve asked us what types of buildings we might find acceptable for light industrial rezoning and we’ve given examples like retail or medical supply. I wonder what you would find unacceptable to put next to 6000 residential homes and near Apex Friendship schools. Would you also consider applications for nuclear waste storage, an oil refinery, or a fireworks warehouse as well as a 300 MW data center? We hope during the January 22 joint session with the planning department you will determine the proposal does not fit the town’s future vision for light industrial. I believe you have enough love for us that you will choose wisely. Thank you!

I also sent an email to the town planner Bruce Venable yesterday:

Hello Bruce:

Hope your holidays went well and you're back in action. I'm preparing to speak at next week's 1/13/25 town council meeting as well as listen to the 1/22/25 joint work session. Could you please share an update on the status of the Natelli application including the UDO amendment application and their response to EAB zoning conditions with proposed environmental conditions?

Is there anything else that would help us understand the annexation and rezoning process from residential to light industrial (LI) given the very conceptual information provided so far in the data center application? I heard that much of the specific design requirements might be submitted by the developer if rezoning is granted by the council?

I'm still struggling to understand how a proposed 300 MW data center with 100 diesel generators consuming significant water resources could be considered LI and want to clarify the issue before speaking to the town council. How do you determine or enforce conditional use requirements as stated in the initial application that the design will "minimize environmental impacts and protect..water and air resources, wildlife habitat and other natural resources?" For example, is the Phase I site assessment publically available and have they completed an environmental impacts assessment or would one be required later?

Thanks again!

Bill

Phone call with Bruce Venable, Apex Planning Department on January 8, 2026

I called Bruce to follow up on my email and learned the data center applicant has not resubmitted anything new since last October. They can submit a revision as soon as next month that would address the issues brought up by the planning department and the Environmental Advisory Board. I asked what kinds of facilities would be unacceptable to be classified as light industrial and he used the example of a meat packing plant that would have noise, smell, and other problems. Since there are existing small scale data centers that support cloud computing, scale is the issue now and it is not known how large of a data center would be considered acceptable for light industrial. The developer submitted their application for a hyperscale 300 MW facility before the planning director issued a letter classifying acceptable sizes of data centers. So now the town must consider the application. How should the town council address or evaluate issues presented in the application? Just saying there might be a problem, such as evaporative wastewater mist that could cause legionella disease, it would be better to provide actual scientific evidence elsewhere.

Bruce would like us to send him peer reviewed literature and not news articles. The planning department does not review site reports like Phase I documents that will go into the site file for other department reviews. There will be a public hearing with the planning department in spring or summer and then another public meeting with the town council. Bruce is coordinating with other towns and states to see about developing consistent standards and best practices. He did not see the PWCC information on ordinance recommendations provided to the town council on October 28. We discussed the evolving technology and how AI and gen AI are disruptors and there could be an AI investment bubble bursting soon as well as new space-based data centers in the future.

Revision based on helpful reviews and discussions so far:

We hope as you evaluate the hyper-scale data center application that you are balancing your analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats known as a SWAT analysis. The rapid deployment of artificial intelligence is having profound impacts on our society. My environmental science career includes working on nuclear issues so I’m not surprised that AI is being compared to the Manhattan Project made famous in the Oppenheimer movie showing the rush to build and use atomic weapons.

I have a neighbor in Jordan Manors who grew up downwind from above ground nuclear testing; he told me that many of his classmates contracted and died from leukemia attributable to atomic testing. Weapons and machines don’t love us, but we love getting to know our neighbors.

· We look to the board to protect our families, neighbors and the health and safety of our community.

· Our children and grandchildren who should not have to breathe pollution from diesel generators or burning fossil fuels increasing risk of asthma and cancer.

· Our pets and wildlife should not be subjected to a harmful environment, including noise and vibrations 24/7, but the developer’s consultant is only looking at noise levels impacting human hearing.

· We care for our landscaping, but droughts and data center demands could kill our vegetation.

We hope during the January 22 joint session with the planning department you will carefully evaluate SWAT cost-benefits for a hyper-scale digital campus and that it does not fit the town’s future vision for light industrial. I believe you have enough love for us that you will choose wisely. Thank you!