(The Center Square) – A $2.6 billion data center planned for western Palm Beach County is receiving growing pushback from the community.
Project Tango would cover about 200 acres. Currently, its planned location is approximately 2,000 feet away from an elementary school.
On Wednesday, the Palm Beach County School Board agreed to send a letter to county commissioners expressing their concern about the location. They also agreed to send a letter requesting more information about the project.
The county commission’s final zoning hearing on Project Tango is scheduled for July 15.
Board Chair Karen Brill said she has spent two months looking into Project Tango.
“It’s not that we’re opposed to it,” said Brill. “It’s just a matter of proximity. And so even though we know the federal government is looking at slowing things down, this project has been in the works.”
However, Board Member Marcia Andrews, who represents District 6, left no question over where she stood.
“The site is so close you could almost walk to the school. It is something that I’m certainly opposed to, having a site that close to a school center,” said Andrews.
Large-scale data centers have garnered controversy over their noise level, water usage, and general health concerns.
There are 12 operating data centers in Florida with plans underway for eight more, according to data from Cleanview, a company that tracks data center development.
The Project Tango data center is planned to have a closed-loop cooling system that recirculates water, which would be provided by the county utility system. It would use an estimated 5,000 gallons of potable water per day, according to the project website.
Sharon Merchant, who spoke on behalf of the Western Palm Beach County Community Alliance at this week’s school board meeting, says the data center would actually be within 1,200 feet of Saddle View Elementary School and highlighted her concerns about the project.
“The acoustics level, while it’s regulated by the county, at this point is unknown. We don’t have that information. We do have current acoustic numbers on that property and they’re pretty much at the maximum that’s allowed by the county right now. We are told that there will be over 600 fans on that property and you can imagine the amount of noise and vibration that they might generate,” said Merchant.
The Project Tango Data Center is anticipated to have sound levels below expected regulatory thresholds, according to a sound impact assessment provided by the company. The assessment also proposed noise control measures to minimize sound including erecting sound barriers near the substation transformers and using “low noise design features.”
