Why It Matters

Community awareness and involvement are critical to the stewardship of a clean and healthy environment and climate, especially when centered around a clear set of shared priorities. When communities understand the environmental challenges they face—such as pollution, climate change, or lack of access to clean water—they are better equipped to organize, advocate, and take meaningful action. Coalescing around specific priorities allows residents to focus their energy, amplify their voices, and push for targeted solutions that reflect their lived experiences and needs. This grassroots engagement fosters accountability, resilience, and long-term sustainability. It matters because lasting environmental progress depends not just on policy or technology, but on the power of informed and united communities to shape their future and protect the health of generations to come. The following are the priorities for South County.

DATA CENTERS

Powering Data, Draining Communities.

WHY IT MATTERS

Data centers may power the digital world, but for residents, they can come at a steep cost. These facilities strain local energy and water systems, pollute the air, and often displace green space, impacting public health, quality of life, and the environment. While they bring a few short-term construction jobs, they offer little in the way of long-term careers or meaningful economic return for the community. Worse, residents and small businesses may end up footing the bill for infrastructure upgrades through higher utility rates. For communities working to create vibrant, mixed-use neighborhoods with good jobs, clean air, and green space, unchecked data center development threatens those goals. That’s why residents must demand thoughtful planning, transparency, and real benefits, not just promises, when these projects are proposed.

WHAT ARE THE ISSUES?

Environmental Degradation and Resource Strain

Data centers consume vast amounts of electricity and water, placing significant strain on local utilities and natural resources. Their continuous energy demands often rely on fossil-fuel-based power, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. On-site diesel generators used for backup power release harmful pollutants that degrade local air quality, while the constant output of heat, noise, and artificial lighting can impact nearby ecosystems, disrupt wildlife, and reduce residents' quality of life. Additionally, data centers often require large parcels of land, leading to the loss of forests, wetlands, and farmland, vital natural systems that regulate flooding, filter water, and support biodiversity.

Public Health and Environmental Justice Risks

The environmental impacts of data centers are not distributed evenly. These facilities are frequently sited in or near communities with limited political power or inadequate environmental protections, often communities of color or lower-income neighborhoods. These already overburdened and underserved communities are frequent targets of developers. Many of these communities rank high on the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) MDE Environmental Justice Screening Tool (NOTE: This tool has been “temporarily disabled due to ‘disruptions’ in federal online data availability.”) This pattern reinforces historical injustices and exposes already vulnerable populations to air and noise pollution, diminished green space, and rising utility costs. The long-term health consequences -- respiratory illness to stress-related conditions, can further strain community well-being and public health systems.

Economic Trade-Offs and Missed Opportunities

Though often marketed as engines of economic growth, data centers deliver limited financial benefits to host communities. They generate a modest number of short-term construction jobs during the build-out phase, but offer very few long-term, high-paying careers once operational. These facilities are highly automated and require minimal ongoing staffing, often importing specialized labor rather than creating opportunities for local residents. This creates a troubling imbalance: communities invest land, infrastructure, and political capital into data centers, only to receive minimal, short-lived returns, essentially a short-term gain for a long-term hassle.

Incompatibility with Mixed-Use and Smart Growth Goals

For communities pursuing mixed-use and smart development—strategies focused on walkability, economic diversity, sustainability, and quality of life—data centers pose serious conflicts. Their massive, fortress-like footprints and heavy infrastructure needs clash with the human-scale design and multifunctional land use that smart growth requires. Data centers consume valuable land that could be used for housing, retail, parks, schools, and transit-oriented development. When they dominate the landscape, they limit opportunities to build inclusive, vibrant communities and can disincentivize investment in more socially and economically beneficial development.

Ratepayer and Taxpayer Burdens

Beyond environmental and land use concerns, data centers often shift the cost burden of infrastructure upgrades, e.g., new substations, transmission lines, and water systems, onto local ratepayers and taxpayers. Low- and middle-income residents and small businesses may see their utility bills skyrocket to support the energy-intensive needs of private tech firms. Without legally binding community benefit and investment agreements or strict regulations ensuring developers bear these costs, public resources are exploited for private profit, with little accountability or return on investment for the broader community.

What are some solutions to the proliferation of Data Centers?

Given the significant environmental, social, and economic implications, communities must carefully weigh the costs and benefits of data center development. While digital infrastructure is essential, it must not come at the expense of public health, equity, sustainability, and smarter land use. If Prince George’s County and other jurisdictions are to build resilient, future-ready communities, they must set a high bar for transparency, environmental stewardship, and tangible community benefit in any data center proposal. Here is what you can do…

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SUCCESS STORIES

Resident concerns halt construction plans for Pepco lithium battery storage in Prince George’s County (DC News Now)

Pepco was planning to build a lithium battery storage facility in the middle of an Oxon Hill neighborhood despite the risks such facilities can carry. We worked with residents and community members to inform them of the risk and oppose the facility. Due to the community pushback, Pepco decided to build the facility elsewhere.

Advancing Engagement Report

This report provides an understanding of the offshore wind industry in the DMV and its intersection with equity, supplier diversity, and workforce development. These insights, informed by the 2025 International Partnering Forum (IPF), reveal both progress and persistent gaps, especially as they relate to environmental justice communities.

This video features Maryland Delegate Jamila Woods inspirational remarks on the “power” of offshore wind.