The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Tuesday that for now, it will abandon a proposal to make it easier for data centers to discharge their wastewater into some lakes, rivers and streams.
The state agency had been considering streamlining its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits process for all data centers statewide.
But after the EPA received a “significant volume” of comments against doing so, it won’t move forward with the one-size-fits-all model, saying that issuing permits for a data center on a case by case basis “is the most appropriate path forward at this time.”
An EPA spokesperson declined further comment. The move came after mounting public and political pressure.
Alliance for the Great Lakes Senior Source Water Policy Manager Helena Volzer said last she heard, the EPA had gotten thousands of comments, including some her organization had solicited.
“I think, by and large, things will continue the way they have,” Volzer said in an interview Tuesday. “Most data centers are discharging to wastewater treatment, because it’s convenient.”
Holzer was concerned with minimal oversight into data center discharges into bodies of freshwater, since different facilities have different cooling methods and release different chemicals.
Politicians across the aisle, including U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno and gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton, voiced concerns with the EPA rules as drafted.
“Data centers should be held to the same, or higher, environmental standards as any other business,” Moreno wrote on X earlier in July. “This nonsense needs to end, as do the dumb tax incentives, and all data centers should never raise electricity costs!”
And Acton wrote on X last week that she believes data centers “should never discharge their water usage into our lakes.”
Most of the data centers in the state discharge into nearby wastewater treatment facilities, which follow standards. Just one has the green light to discharge into freshwater through its existing NPDES license, Holzer said.
