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Swain County Commissioners Tuesday unanimously passed a 12-month moratorium on new data centers in the county.
This move comes after the community held a public meeting March 31, which drew 140 residents and 34 speakers to the county building in Bryson City, N.C.
Data center construction has become an increasingly urgent topic of conversation in communities across Western North Carolina, as well as the entire state. Residents have voiced similar concerns from one county meeting to the next, with many people bringing up similar concerns around water usage, energy usage, noise, and visual blight. Data centers have long stored the world’s digital archives – our emails, our photographs – but with the advent of artificial intelligence, more servers are needed, and those servers require more power and intensive cooling systems so they don’t overheat. Some data centers can use as much energy as a power plant produces in a year, and they are water-intensive – Energy Storage Solutions in Edgecombe County uses as much as 500,000 gallons of water per day.
Public comments at Tuesday’s Commission meeting in Bryson City largely indicated support for a moratorium. One commenter urged the county to pass a stricter, long-term ban.
Another speaker, who introduced herself as Taylor from the Whittier community, spoke to her experience as a fly-fishing guide. She said she’s particularly worried about the water usage of data centers. “A lot of our income comes from people coming to the area to fish with us,” she said. “It will completely ruin the fishing around here.”
Now that the moratorium has passed, Swain County commissioners will begin a monthslong process of research in order to understand the options for a possible stricter and longer-term ordinance regulating data center development. They're hoping the process takes less than the full year, but Commissioner Tanner Lawson said he doesn't want to cut corners.
“I want to make sure whatever we put in place is as perfect as we can get it,” said Lawson.
The commissioners also voted to add two ad hoc committees made up of Swain County residents to guide and advise the process. The county will be seeking applications for those committees this week.
Swain County is now added to an ever-growing list of counties, cities, and towns in Western North Carolina that have recently passed temporary moratoriums or longer-term bans on new data center construction, including Clyde, Watauga County, Boone, Canton, Madison County, Brevard, Clay County, and more.
