Reports show that data centers used to store, train, and operate AI models use large amounts of energy and water, with rippling impacts on the environment and public health.
According to the International Energy Agency, a typical AI data center uses the equivalent power of 100,000 homes. According to a report by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, large data centers can consume up to 5 million gallons of water per day.
This water is used to keep computer hardware cool, and some data center developers are tapping into freshwater resources.
The use of diesel generators to keep data centers online has raised public health concerns because they can emit harmful pollutants that can cause asthma and other respiratory problems.
Additionally, data centers are typically built in rural areas, making marginalized communities more likely to be affected.
Naperville City Council members have rejected the proposed data center after months of resident opposition. Their main concerns were the use of large amounts of water for cooling, health risks, and the potential for increased utility bills.
Data centers are being built rapidly in Aurora. Cyrus One began construction on a second data center there a year ago. There are currently four data centers in the city, with five more under construction.
Because of the focus on the Northern Lights, the city has instituted a 180-minute moratorium on new data development, which expires in March 2026.
“We have a lot of data centers that want to be here as well, so we thought we needed to pause here because we didn’t actually have a data center definition in the zoning, so basically data centers are being treated as warehouses, and warehouses and data centers are not the same use,” said Alison Lindberg, Director of Sustainability at Aurora. “It doesn’t have the same impact on neighboring neighborhoods.”
Lindberg said Aurora is researching best practices for data centers because standards have not yet been set. It is also considering requiring all new data centers to be considered conditional use.
“So the City Council will always have to approve the data center,” she said.
“We’re also setting new noise requirements, new water consumption requirements, new energy requirements, and we’re going to continue to monitor and report back to the city on what those standards are and whether compliance with them is being met,” Lindberg added. “It’s definitely possible to make these data centers sustainable. We just need to make sure that our data centers actually do that. And if we want our data centers to be good neighbors, we needed to have these requirements in place.”
Aurora held an open house Thursday night to share these guidelines with the public and address community concerns.
