Proposed Data Center Moratorium Ordinance will be heard by Santa Fe County Commission on Tuesday the 30th. The draft has a hyperscale sized loophole that must be amended.

An ordinance proposed for discussion at a 2:00PM June 30th meeting of the Santa Fe County Commission would impose a one-year moratorium on the development of qualifying data center facilities in Santa Fe County, giving the County time to study and develop a framework for governing data center development. 

We applaud Santa Fe County Commissioners for proactive consideration of a data center moratorium to allow for the development of comprehensive protective regulations in Santa Fe County. However, the draft ordinance has significant weaknesses that threaten to not only allow the proliferation of environmentally damaging data centers in Santa Fe County, but also to provide a low bar that other counties and municipalities might emulate, leaving doors wide enough for countless hyperscale developers to drive through.

1. A major weakness of the draft ordinance is the narrow scope of the moratorium, which as proposed applies only to “large-scale data centers” having an aggregate IT load capacity (power requirement) of 100 megawatts (MW) or greater. Data center impacts are not limited to hyperscale facilities, and the difference between a 20 MW, 50 MW, or 80 MW facility is often one of degree rather than kind. Facilities well below 100 MW can still create substantial demands on water supplies, electricity infrastructure, wastewater systems, and neighboring communities.

   
   

   A medium-sized 15 MW data center, for example, can consume as much water as three average hospitals, while even a 1 MW facility using conventional evaporative cooling can consume approximately 6.9 million gallons of water annually.

   
   

   Our review of moratorium proposals nationwide found that the majority either define data centers descriptively, without reference to a power threshold, or utilize thresholds in the 5-20 MW range.

2. The ordinance appropriately addresses water, energy, infrastructure, and cumulative impacts, but it does not address environmental justice concerns. The energy, water, and land use impacts of large data centers tend to be disproportionately felt by communities that are already overburdened by redlining, industrial uses, utility infrastructure, and environmental hazards. We recommend adding findings recognizing the potential for disproportionate impacts on low-income communities, communities of color, Indigenous communities, traditional villages, acequia communities, and other historically burdened populations. 

   
   

   Santa Fe County's ordinance could become a model for other jurisdictions, and environmental justice considerations should be central to that framework.

3. Finally the scope of data center impacts requiring regulation that should be enumerated in the ordinance must expand beyond well known issues like water usage, grid capacity, noise, heat etc, to include protections regarding transparency and:

   1. Electricity ratepayer impacts and cost-shifting risks;

   2. Monitoring and regulation around the use of diesel backup generators;

   3. Impacts on local landfills, wastewater, and wastewater treatment centers;

   4. Electronic waste management, disposal, and recycling requirements;

   5. End-of-life decommissioning and site restoration requirements;

   6. Community benefit standards;

   7. Emergency response and public safety planning requirements;

   8. Long-term infrastructure upgrade costs and cost allocation; and

   9. Bonding and liability insurance requirements.

We encourage everyone to attend the next meeting of the Santa Fe County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) at John Gaw Meem Courthouse at 102 Grant Avenue, Santa Fe New Mexico, 87501, at 2:00PM on the 30th, or click here to join virtually. You need to click here to register to speak.