Beth Hamilton-Karas doesn’t live in Bow. But she lives close enough, just over a mile away in Pembroke, and if a data center is built on the Merrimack Station power plant’s site along the Merrimack River, it would sit closer to her doorstep than to most residents in Bow.
On Tuesday night, Hamilton-Karas came to Bow’s select board meeting with a sign that read “NO DATA CENTER” to ensure that town officials understood that the effects of certain projects don’t stop at municipal boundaries.
“All residents of New Hampshire will suffer from a development like this. It would impact the region at large. Anywhere downstream on the Merrimack River would be impacted by something like this,” she said. “Please, do not allow this to happen to Bow, to our greater community at large, or to New Hampshire in general.”
GEOFF FORESTER / For the Monitor
Earlier this month, news broke that Granite Shore Power, which owns the shuttered Merrimack Station, had filed a request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to discuss connecting a 350-megawatt project to the regional power grid. No data center development proposal has been submitted to the town yet, but since then, residents have stayed vigilant, wondering whether Bow officials would entertain such a proposal within their boundaries.
Inside the Bow municipal building, residents and non-residents crowded the select board meeting, taking turns at the microphone to voice their opposition to the data center project; outside, protesters held signs reiterating that stance.
Passing cars honked in support of their cause, the sound piercing through the building’s walls.
“The select board doesn’t have much to do with this,” said Kip McDaniel, select board chair and planning board member. “We want to be as transparent with you as possible. So no one’s gonna do any hiding of anything. If that application comes in, the town will know it.”
A proposal for a development like a data center would go through the planning board process.
Data centers are typically sited at former power plants because these sites have established connections to electric grids, nearby water sources and large tracts of land to support their infrastructure needs.
Granite Shore Power’s 343-acre Merrimack Station property on River Road in Bow is the most ideal location for a data center in town, offering space, water access from the Merrimack River for cooling,and an existing connection to the grid.
Scott Coulombe was pretty much the only voice in the room supporting the data center proposal for Bow, believing a large-scale development like it should be welcomed in town.
“Let the data center come; they vet them properly through all the codes and ordinances and other regulations that are in place,” he said. “If everything’s done correctly and properly, and we go through as people of this town with them both, we’re going to have a good option here to help lower our taxes and continue to make this a great place to live.”
The draw of lower taxes wasn’t enough to convince other residents.
Julia Gove has lived in Bow for 23 years. Standing outside the municipal building with residents from all over the state, she said she worries about the environmental impact of a potential data center and the noise pollution stemming from equipment running around the clock.
“I think there are going to be other costs that come with a data center,” Gove said. “Tax benefit is not guaranteed. I think we can find other ways to meet our financial obligations.”
Local rules or state action?
With growing opposition to data center development and a proposal for a “micro” data center at a vacant lot in East Concord, New Hampshire legislators are taking measures to restrict data center expansion.
Senate President Sharon Carson, a Londonderry Republican, said that the Senate would explore legislation to “protect New Hampshire taxpayers from shouldering the costly demands of data center development and ensure our communities are not left to pay the price.”
Gov. Kelly Ayotte has echoed this sentiment, announcing this month that she intends to include a moratorium on data centers in the policy provisions of the upcoming state budget.
Yennifer Hardiman regularly walks her two dogs, Marshall and Isla, along the Merrimack River in Hooksett, downstream from the possible data center site in Bow.
Standing with others in Bow, dogs by her side, she said she remains unconvinced by politicians’ assurances that community interests will be protected if the data center is developed and draws water from the Merrimack River.
“I can appreciate those words, but I do wonder if they’re just words,” she said, carrying a “WATER IS LIFE” sign. “Sometimes I feel like things are said to appease people in the moment, and there’s no follow-through.”
GEOFF FORESTER / For the Monitor
Throughout the Select Board meeting, residents from across the region, from the Seacoast all the way to Nashua, voiced concerns about how data centers could harm the environment, local wildlife and public health.
At the meeting, residents asked select board members to pledge that they wouldn’t sign nondisclosure agreements if a data center development proposal landed on their desks.
Angela Brennan, a select board member, said that while she understands the fear around non-disclosure agreements, the board has not had an agreement of that kind come before it in recent years.
“Anything that would come before this board of legal nature would go through our town attorney, and we would be seeking his advice to make sure that we don’t put ourselves or the town in any kind of legal jeopardy,” she said.
If a development proposal is submitted to the town, it would go through multiple planning board meetings and could involve input from a third-party consultant hired to assess the public’s concerns, including environmental, before any approval is granted.
The site of the now-shuttered coal-fired power plant is zoned industrial, with very few homes in the area, so a data center there would comply with town ordinance.
But municipalities can change their zoning ordinances and land use regulations to restrict where data centers can be located. Whether that can effectively prevent them altogether depends on state law.
“They [data center developers] would also have the legal resources to pursue a case against the town if there was any sort of prejudice against the siting, zoning, approval or disapproval of such an application,” Brennan explained. “Should this be happening town by town or is this something that should be happening at a state level?”
