On the Friday, August 14 edition of OPEN AGENDA (S3 E43) we ask: Should AI data centers be built in Wicomico County? At the 8/4/26 County Council meeting, many concerns were raised regarding the feasibility of data centers, as well as their potential economic and environment impacts. Since most electricity in Maryland is generated out-of-state, how will the data center's huge electrical demands impact costs to residential consumers? Will the large volumes of water needed to cool the computers deplete our aquifers resulting in shortages for agriculture and home use? Will the discharge of cooling water into local waterways damage their ecology and impact commercial fishing? Will the noise and light pollution produced by data centers disturb residential neighborhoods? Do our local fire departments have the resources to handle a massive fire fueled by large battery arrays should they combust? Will enough jobs be created to justify the problems that data centers are likely to produce? In response to these questions, the County Council approved a temporary 1-year moratorium on building AI data centers. Let's hope that the county government will use this time wisely to carefully study the issues, involve the public, and draft prudent regulations before allowing these facilities to be constructed. But be prepared; the state government in Annapolis may force data centers upon us despite our objections as they continue to usurp the county government's authority to regulate land use. Tune in and be informed.
Open Agenda TV S3 E43 Data Center Moratorium
Show Transcript
Disclaimer: The following transcript was auto-generated and may contain spelling or contextual errors.
You're watching Open Agenda.
>> Hi and welcome to this new episode of
Open Agenda. I'm your host Joe Venosa.
And more importantly, we've got some old
friends in the house. Mr. Jim Atkins
from Mardella.
>> Yes.
>> Thank you for being here. Okay. And Mr.
Joe White from Parsonsburg.
>> Thanks for having me on.
>> Thanks for being here. So, in this
episode, we're going to investigate or
at least maybe discuss and elaborate
upon some of the things that were
brought up at last night's county
council meeting on August 4th with
regard to the moratorium on data
centers. Right. I believe it was
resolution 125-2026.
Um, this put in place, as I said, a
yearong moratorum on data center
construction in Wycom County.
>> Public hearing on resolution number
125-2026.
This is establishing a temporary
moratorum on the acceptance, processing,
review, approval, and issuance of
permits, site plans, development
approvals, and other authorizations for
data centers centers pinning the review
and adoption of appropriate county
regulations.
>> Jim Atkins, Wcomo County. Uh, first I'd
like to thank the council for bringing
this up so it can be discussed tonight.
Uh a lot has happened in the past uh 2
months on the Eastern Shore with data
centers. Just a few points that uh I'd
like to highlight. Uh data centers
employ an average of 30 to 50 full-time
employees. That's not very many people
for the amount of room they take up. An
average size data center consumes enough
electricity to power 100,000 homes.
We have 104,000 residents in this
county. So, we have a whole lot less
than 100,000 homes.
Since 2018, the state of Maryland has
reduced the power that's generated in
the state of Maryland by 4,400 megawws.
Most of our electricity is transmitted
from Pennsylvania into Maryland because
we don't produce enough here.
A medium-sized data center consumes
300,000 gallons of water per day and a
large facility can consume as much as 5
million gallons per day. There are too
many unknowns to allow a data center to
be brought in until we get answers. The
amount of electricity,
customers bills are going to go up.
Water usage, what type of water is going
to be used? Will it be clean? Will it be
soil water? Will it be a closed system?
You have noise and light pollution that
comes from data center. If a data center
is located outside of a municipal
location, would it affect the water
table for private wells in the county?
We all remember a few years ago during a
drought, we had a lot of well problems.
Let's let's pull 300,000 gallons a day
out of the water table and see how many
wells go dry in the county. I strongly
support a moratorum to further research
this before the county commits or allows
any data centers. Thank you.
>> Good evening. Join District 7, Wcomako
County. Uh firstly, I'd like to thank
the council for taking up this issue of
the moratorum. Uh it's obviously been
discussed quite a bit. I think it's the
right decision uh particularly given the
unknowns. Ultimately, what we've seen
throughout the state of Maryland,
regardless of your political views or
ideology, is that rural areas tend to
get shafted by the state when it comes
to the policies of data centers. This is
true across Western Maryland and it's
true on the Eastern Shore. We simply do
not have the political and financial
power to fight back. And again I say
that earlier about regardless of your
political views because I think this is
an issue that unites a lot of us
regardless of what party we identify in
and where we live. We understand that
the threats are economic and
environmental. My concern is what
happens after this moratorum because I
have a fear that if certain people are
elected next year and they happen to
control the council they will push for
data centers after this moratorum. So,
I'm encouraging all people who are
running for office as candidates to
publicly pledge where you stand on the
matter.
>> Hi, my name is Matt Blades. Live in
Wakcomo County. Um,
like them, I am also I'm not even I
don't even want a one-year moratorium. I
want an outright ban on all large scale
data centers. We we don't have the
capacity to run this.
>> Good evening. Uh, Carol Danoo, board
president of the Wcomo Environmental
Trust. Uh we'd like we we'd like to
first um
agree that it's important to update the
code. Uh our our zoning code needs clear
guidance uh on the on its application to
data centers and we [snorts] applaud the
county's foresight in proposing a
moratorum at this point.
>> Good evening. My name is Monica Brooks,
Frescomo County NAACP. We did already
submit a letter um last month in regards
to um the data centers, but I did also
just want to um share for public sake,
yes, we are certainly in support of the
moratorum, but we're also believing that
once that opportunity to really deep
dive on what all is encompassing with
these data centers,
>> there's two fears here.
One is we're experiences experiencing
this now with the state overriding our
planning and zoning laws that we have.
So these messages need to really go to
our state legislators, not just locally,
but all over the state. Um because a lot
of the stuff we do on this council can
be overridden by the state. I'm going to
support this moratorum. This is uh our
planning zoning director, Tracy Taylor.
We're very fortunate with comical county
because you have absolutely the very
very best planning zoning director in
the state of Maryland if not the country
here. I say that in all honesty not just
because of our knowledge but the fact
that I've never met an individual that
and a government official that actually
reacted to public opinion and try to do
do the best and to be as fair as
possible to everyone in the community.
she does agree.
[applause]
[laughter]
>> Um, I've been listening intently to all
the comments tonight and I've made
diligent notes. Obviously, I'm don't
pretend to be an expert on data centers
at this point. I don't think any of the
planning directors that I've been
meeting and speaking with um, consider
ourselves experts, but we are working
together. I think a comment was made
earlier about extending um, you know,
our collaboration beyond this county. I
do that as planning director. I meet
pretty regularly with other planning
directors on the shore and especially
the lower eastern shore. We have met on
this issue two weeks ago. Mako has been
very active and two weeks ago the Mako
affiliate we met for two hours. Um the
primary topic of discussion was data
centers and getting up to speed on what
every county is doing. We know that
there will be a report coming out in
September on data centers from the
state. So, it seems appropriate that we
would wait for the results of that
report. But in addition, and as was
mentioned by Councilman Holloway, I
fully expect that there will be
legislation introduced this next
session. I'm not sure which way it will
go, but we have already been warned
through Mako that a complete ban is
likely out of the question. We will end
up in a lawsuit if we attempt to go that
direction. So I do think this moratorum
will give us some time to thoughtfully
consider regulations as has been stated
tonight and as you all know we have just
started our comprehensive plan update.
We're getting ready to get our website
up and running and our community survey
and the like. Um, we definitely want to
incorporate some policies and some
thought process into the comprehensive
plan which will then ultimately be
followed by our comprehensive
reasonzoning of our ordinance which was
adopted in 2004.
Um, I feel very confident that given the
year will give us ample time to make
these considerations here from the
public and come up with a draft that
will be suitable to the community.
>> Just so the public's knowledge too
because this is exactly what Joe was was
talking about. um a very brief overview
of what has happened in Wakoma County in
reference to planning and zoning
ordinance period as well as solar pan
solar farm solar panels.
>> Yes, of course seen the solar
legislation which um preempted our
ability to do anything about solar. The
solar regs were drafted. They overrode
our local regs. In addition to that, it
state the state law stated that our
priority preservation area, which in our
case is our entire A1 zone, that there
could be up to 5% of our land that could
be dedicated to solar, which is a huge
number given the amount of acres that we
have in the A1 zoning district. Um, we
tried to uh argue that and say that any
lands that were already permanently
preserved not count against us. We
didn't. We were not successful in that
effort in this last session. And we've
already been told by Mako that the word
out is that solar will not be revisited
this next session. So there would be no
point to move forward on those bills.
And then we had legislation
which um dictated that anywhere in the
county where we allow single family
dwelling units that we also are required
to allow manufactured and modular
housing by right. And then we were also
as one of the items that's coming
forward is in the next it was introduced
at last council meeting. It'll be on
next council meeting is the accessory
dwelling unit provision which means that
you're allowed to have accessory
dwelling units by right anywhere where
single family detached dwelling units
are allowed. I fully expect that there
will be some legislation coming this
session regarding data centers. What
that might be I don't know
>> and and it's really not whether the
local jurisdiction is in favor or
against it or the citizens are in favor
against it. It's a matter of the state
of Maryland as Joe said uh eliminating
local autonomy. We have the privilege to
make those decisions for ourselves based
on community input.
>> Yes, it is preemptive legislation, which
means it overrides our local zoning. We
do not have a say in that. And even if
we didn't change our zoning code, we'd
still be bound by it because it's state
law.
>> Uh I I've been working on data center
reform issues for the past four years.
My background is in land conservation,
natural resources, agricultural land
protection. So, this isn't something
that we've known was going to be an
issue and and and have seen this coming
uh coming about. Uh about 3 years ago, I
was one of the very first people to
actually join the um the Maryland data
center reform coalition. So, we're the
ones who basically put together the uh
the data center study bill uh which is
actually cited in our um in our
legislation. Uh that bill by the way uh
became law was vetoed pardon me that
bill was passed by the general assembly
was vetoed by the governor. The general
assembly disagreed with the governor and
overrode that veto uh so that we can
actually know what are the pack impacts
of data centers.
>> All those in favor of resolution 125
2026 say I
>> I opposed.
>> Motion is carried. Resolution passes
unanimously.
>> Seems to be in line with what they've
done in Worcester and what they are
planning to do also in Dorchester. Yeah.
>> Um, so generally speaking, I think we
all would agree uh that the moratorum in
the short term is a good idea. Um, I I
think we we all kind of spoke in favor.
>> There's a good opportunity in a row.
>> Yeah, that's a good way to put it. Get
our ducks in a row. But of course, that
doesn't uh negate the fact that there
are a lot of questions and concerns
about those ducks. So, we'll be back
with our next segment of Open Agenda and
we will dive into the moratorum on data
centers.
Hi, welcome back to Open Agenda.
Gentlemen, we uh as stated in our intro,
um we saw quite a bit as far as activity
in our county regarding uh concerns and
action on possible data center
construction. Um so with the passage of
resolution 125-2026,
we now have a one-year moratorum on data
center construction and development in
Wycom County. Generally speaking, how do
you feel about that? And what are you
concerned about with moving forward?
>> Well, Jim was the first one, to my
knowledge, to bring this up several
months ago. Yeah. I mean,
>> yeah. No, I'm very happy with the with
the one-year moratorum. I
don't want people to think that I am
against data centers
in a whole because I'm not. They're
necessary and as we move on, they're
going to be required. Uh my whole
concern with bringing all this up is the
regulations
>> that need to be put in place before one
is is allowed to to affect our lives
because uh
>> you know everywhere that they are being
put. Uh they people talk about the rise
in energy costs
>> uh the amount of water that they uh use.
>> Mhm.
>> Which is a very important part of the
Eastern Shore. the amount of water that
we have because the the majority of this
area is on wells.
>> Yeah.
>> So, you know, the water table goes down
and you don't have water, you've got
you've got a problem. Uh light impact,
uh noise impact, all those types of
things.
>> This just seemed to be moving too
quickly all of a sudden. And
[clears throat] when you have Mo come
down here to the county council,
I guess maybe two months ago and tell
the county council not to worry about it
because they're not interested in the
Eastern Shore.
>> Well, then the very next week you have
them trying to put one in Federal and
and that's last I looked still on the
Eastern Shore. But when you look at
since 2018, which is only eight years
ago,
The state has shut down
6,000
megawws of electricity generated in this
state.
>> Yeah.
>> And only replaced it with 1,600. That's
a 4,400 megawatt difference that we're
importing from New Jersey,
>> Pennsylvania.
>> Pennsylvania. And everybody looks at
their electric bills and they see the
transmission charges that are on those
electric bills. You know, if we're going
to have data centers, then some of them
are starting to generate their own
electricity with little miniature
nuclear
>> closed loop nuclear
>> nuclear systems. Fine, do that. But but
don't expect the community again
>> to pay for somebody else's project. I I
want to say I I was in favor of doing
the one-year moratorum,
>> but I but kind of if if you listen to
what Jim said, there's a lot to unravel.
And the one mistake we could make
>> is treating data centers like the
boogeyman. M
>> and the reason why I say that is similar
to what like you said what when Mako the
Maryland Association of Counties come
down and they they help county councils
figure out they're like a leazison
between them and the legislators and in
in Annapolis.
>> At the end of the day, if we did a
direct ban, it's going to it's going to
be challenged in court. we're going to
lose
>> and or most likely the state of
Maryland's going to come down just like
they have done with so many other
guidelines lately and shove it down our
throats.
>> Doing a one-year moratorum with no
action plan
>> is putting your head in the sand, hiding
from the boogeyman.
>> Yeah. Right.
>> So, we need to address these. Now, we've
seen Worcester County address these in
pieces and they mostly focus on
infrastructure.
>> Yeah. infrastructure could be
electricity, but most likely it's water.
>> Water is the big one. Yeah.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> And and one of the things that I have
found in doing some research on this is
some municipalities across the country
have placed limits
>> on the amount of electricity and the
amount of water that these data centers
can use,
>> right? which may be, you know,
everything new
creates other improvements. Yeah. So,
you know, a year down the road,
hopefully a lot of these questions and
things will be answered and solved.
>> But if you allow them to just come in
here
>> Yeah. and build it and use our
electricity and use our water. What
incentive do they have to find a better
system?
>> Well, and I think that's an important
point because it's going to be curious
to see what the industry at least in
Maryland does on those issues. But, you
know, to your point, Joe, in terms of it
being a nuanced, complicated issue, I
think that's I think it's really
important to emphasize because I suspect
that we are going to get legislation
from the state that does address some of
those because right here in Wcomako
County, you know, we've got Salsbury
University, we've got Title Health, both
of them rely on a good deal and an
increasingly large amount of AI
processing and energy generation. and
>> every person who spoke at the council
meeting in favor of the of the
moratorium, including myself,
>> Yeah.
>> uses a smartphone,
>> right?
>> So, I mean,
>> no one's no one's disputing the
importance of it. I think it comes down
to though again, can we physically
sustain it in this particular county?
>> Okay. and and my view of it based on the
the data that you provided particularly
with how it affects our paleo channel
and our and our access to to water and
in the context of Maryland is one of the
most challenged states in the union
right now regarding energy importation.
It it seems like a really catastrophic
or possibly catastrophic combination of
factors. But I think Jim actually just
touched on something that I think the
the council should be setting these
types of guidelines and and I can give
you another industry that's that's met
this challenge. Completely different
industry, but set parameters on how much
net electricity they can use. So if they
can produce their own, great.
>> Yeah.
>> This is how much net you can use.
>> Yeah.
>> Per square foot.
>> Yeah.
>> Same with water. Yeah.
>> The industry in question is car washes.
So, if you opened a car wash in the
1960s, you build a building, you put
some hoses in, hook a well to it, and
you're washing cars, you're making
money. Go to build a car wash today.
There's you have to be able to recycle a
certain amount of your rinate and reuse
it. So, a car wash today has filter
systems. Now, is it the part that's
washing your car? No. It's that rinse is
used to do the pre-rin, right? just to
get the the get it wet and all that kind
of stuff.
>> There are ways to challenge industry
without cutting jobs, without
diminishing business opportunities.
>> My fear is that we're going to spend 360
days not doing a whole lot on this
>> and then wake up and our homework's due.
>> Well, I'll tell you what, Josh Hastings
was and I I believe still is, he's on
the the state board for mention that
they had that he had served as a liaison
to help sort of planning the
implementation of them. Yes,
>> I'm curious to see what actual practical
suggestions can be brought with that
connection to the county council over
the next year because
>> well, I'd like to talk more about like
what what types of ideas we would
actually want them to to think about.
>> What would it look like? Yeah.
>> Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
>> Yes. And with the with the county's
comprehensive plan due next year.
>> Yeah.
>> You know that this has to be part of it.
But I I'm I'm with Joe in the fact
[clears throat] that Okay, great. We've
we've got a one-year moratorum,
>> but the next step wasn't taken isn't
taken. And you know, you can call them
blue ribbon panels or white papers or
all these great names that everybody
has, but you need to get a group of
people together
>> and this is their job to work on data
centers. what requirements are going to
be so that they can come to the council
and propose something to the council and
work on it. Not just say, "Okay, well,
we're going to wait a year to see what
the state's done or maybe what else
needs to happen and then we'll make a
decision." At the end of the year, in my
world, we need to have a decision. We
need to know what direction we're going
in at the end of a year. That's what
this one-year moratorum is. Well, and
it's going to be interesting to see as
the more term develops, there has been
such a national push back against data
centers in so many areas
>> and and in some instances because they
simply treat them as the boogeyman. And
then and and listen, I I don't want one
near my house either. But if we don't
set parameters, it's going to end up
getting forced down us by the state. And
then that's how you end up with like
we've seen out on Union Church Road,
solar farms right next to people's
houses. Yes.
>> Yeah. So, we're going to come back in
our next segment and I'd like us to talk
about in some detail what are the
possible opportunities that potential
data centers could bring if they were to
come here and what are some of the
pitfalls and dangers because there's
certainly a lot of arguments on both
sides of this discussion.
>> Okay,
>> we'll hang out. Okay, great. Stick
around. We'll be right back with the
next segment of Open Agenda.
>> Hi, and welcome back to the next segment
of Open Agenda. So, we're continuing our
discussion about potential de data
centers in the future and also the
related mortorium that was just passed.
Um, again, pros and cons about what
their ramifications could be in Wakcomo
County. Mr. Joe, you seem to have some
uh possible
points about that you think should be
raised as
>> I I just think there's some mile markers
where for the public for transparency
sake and for public accountability,
>> things that the public has asked for
this to be addressed. electricity. I
think that's the number one thing on
people's mind. Of course, they are
frustrated. As Jim said, they're
frustrated the electric bills are so
high. They're frustrated the state of
Maryland's electric policy seem to be
really turned against us as as private
citizens right now.
>> But two is water. Okay. Now, in
Worcester County, they also have put a
moratorum in. their moratorum is really
built around the lack of infrastructure
for water supply and having owned
businesses in Worcester County. It's
always about capacity they call edus and
uh
>> we only have one municipality besides
Salsbury but only one municipality town
size in Wakcomo that has edu capacity
and that's
>> Willards. And when you look at what
Wester County was going through with the
landing, the potential landing of the
cable wire from Global Links, which is
part of Amazon,
>> that's the closest town to there.
>> I don't know of any plans for them to
tunnel a wire over,
>> but I I want to make sure for the folks
on that side of the county as well as
the rest of the county that that's not
what the intention is.
>> The third one for me was the noise. And
I suggested at last night's meeting that
they use the health department for that.
We need to have work sessions. I
suggested that we bring Delm Marva Power
in to talk about it. We should talk
bring people in from this industry and
talk to them.
>> Related to that, and then I want to get
over to Jim on this is something that
I've had a lot of conversations about uh
because I tend to know a lot of
contractors and people in the
construction industry locally. Some of
them live in my district. And this is
the issue that I'm actually also curious
about is as the data center development
intensifies nationally. Um, one of the
big concerns among the construction
trades and people in the building
industry is the actual material shortage
of things that they rely on. Fiberic
cables, copper, metal. Um, this is
something that is not often discussed,
but um, when they were building the new,
uh, Black Wall Hall here on on campus,
which they're almost done, I talked to a
lot of contractors who said they had
some real problems in terms of getting
necessary materials because so many of
the things that they traditionally rely
on for their raw, you know, goods are
going to data center development. Well,
and one other point Jim made earlier
that I thought was great was about
having these meetings before white
papers or or whatever are written, have
the meetings be public so that the so
that the
>> the citizens are are part of this
process or at least can view it. I think
we all would agree we don't want to
happen to the data center development as
what happened with the liquor dispensary
issues where it was a it was a
relatively close process where a lot of
people in the community felt that they
were shut out of a discussion
>> and there was no minutes no video of
those meetings.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> Yeah. We just need to uh you know we we
need to do our diligence on it over the
next year and find out what our options
are and and [clears throat] like I say I
am not anti data centers. Our world runs
on data now
>> but there has to be some type of
controls over it and and where it is and
how it's placed and how it affects
people.
>> Yeah. It's not a black or white argument
like and and I think that's as what is
often the case in the world we live in
now. It's sort of framed as that. You're
either for or against it.
>> But there is talk about the the
opportunities for job creation uh it
jobs.
>> Um you know those also should be
explored. I mean I not because it would
make or break whether or not we allow
them but just so we can measure
>> what is the impact if if the raw
materials are going to be scarce and
it's going to drive up cost of other
construction but that it also create x
amount of jobs because a lot of these
jobs as you've stated are frontloaded
right
>> yes and and there's just so much
>> that people haven't thought of
[clears throat]
>> or don't know about Mr. Martin last
night from from By Valve
brought up a very another topic that
just
wouldn't have crossed my radar in
[clears throat] a 100 years. And that
was the fact that uh if this water from
these places is discharged, even though
it is filtered and discharged out, it's
at a higher temperature, a high
temperature, and will kill and have an
effect on fish and and
seafood in this area where it's
discharged from.
>> So, but can't they have cooling towers
like they do at a generation plant, but
they should be in the code. That's
another that's what I'm saying is that's
another thing that
>> you've got to get all these people
together like you say that have
knowledge about all this and can say
what if you've got to do this.
>> Well, to your point, I think last
night's public comments did more for the
discussion about planning for data
centers than anything the county itself
has done. Just a shout out, Michael
Perinsk's comments about battery storage
and possible, you know, fire threats and
concerns. A lot of people walked away
from his comments from like, "Wow, I
never thought about that." Even council
members,
>> it was it was a it was a great
perspective.
>> Yeah.
>> But this is why the public should be
involved
>> because you had
15 20 people talk about data centers and
everybody is coming from a different
point in view. You didn't hear that much
with all the comments last night about
data centers. You didn't hear that much
repetition. So many people had a
different view, a different opinion, or
a different possible problem that one of
these will cause. And it was very
informative.
>> If we just try to as a as a county go
with a strict ban, Yeah.
>> it's not likely to succeed only because
of the state of Maryland going force. So
we we would be better off setting our
own.
>> And I'm sure we're going to have a
conversation about that down the road
whenever.
>> And and I was I was happy to hear Mr.
Tracy Taylor say last night that that
she's in contact with the other counties
on the shore
>> and that they are all discussing this.
So, you know,
>> you know, that is one advantage we have
in Wakcomo County right now for
situations like this is that we have
Tracy D.
>> Um she's she has been a huge asset to
the county from everything she's touched
and and help fix some other woes and
help mitigate. I I I remember bringing
up a concern about when they were going
to limit the the um board of variance
could could look at.
>> She she stepped up the communication
side. So she she addressed it in a in in
a creative way but a you know just a
practical way.
>> Yeah.
>> And in a timely way I mean you know same
day almost. So maybe you set enough
processes in place that no place in
Wakcom County
>> would qualify for. Not not to
necessarily keep them out, but just to
protect the residents and their homes,
>> their their quality of life.
>> It's it's going to be an issue in the
future. I think we all can agree on that
much.
>> Well, I appreciate your insights on
this. Um, again, a lot to chew on and I
think we will revisit this very soon, in
fact. So, thanks for your time and thank
you for watching and we'll be back very
soon with another episode of Open
Agenda. Take care out there.
