By Stephen Smoot
Within the shadow of a shuttered industrial site, a confluence of two very different ideas may offer opportunities to bring economic development and environmental restoration together.
For a long time, the notion of constructing massive data centers has grabbed the imagination. Opponents worry about the impact on scenery and electricity consumption. Communities nationwide face these same issues, but for a new reason. Concerns have emerged with Red China and others in building the digital infrastructure necessary to support the centers.
The question is, however, where.
The process of site selection strategy could help to bridge some of the concerns, although none of any importance can be completely waved away. State and local officials when having these conversations could avoid areas that draw residents who live outside of the immediate area and who may act in bad faith against local desires to represent outside funded groups with narrow agendas.
American industrial revolution spread quickly across the area, fueled by abundant natural resources, a skilled work force, and access to rail. This included chemical manufacturing, mining of metal ores, rail yards, or others of the extractive industries. Those areas are often left with significant environmental challenges, often rendering the dirt itself toxic. Once the industrial operations end, they leave behind land that is often of little value for residential, recreational, or agricultural uses.
Beginning in the late 1990s, the United States Environmental Protection Agency created an aggressive and widespread initiative to return formerly contaminated “brownfield” sites to productive use. The goal is also reduce the potential for contamination from them. These “brownfields,” of which there are many nationwide, often come with various levels and types of contamination.
The EPA defines a brownfield as a “real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.” Brownfield revitalization projects have included everything from greenspace creation to the addition of microgrid power plants. It makes sense, therefore, to explore “brownfields” that hosted major industrial, rail, or mining operations as prime candidates for the development of data centers.
Factories rose from the landscape quickly in the late 18 and early 1900s and tended to congregate in certain areas. When operations ceased, the brick walls started to crumble, the metal equipment rusted and fell apart. Vandals break windows and spread the appearance of decay.
Other sites remain in use and cleanup occurs alongside of operations.
The presence of older and abandoned sites can blight the appearance of the surrounding area, whether residential or business. A brand new structure will always look better than the years or decades old ruins of an industrial building or complex.
One can conclude that a site that once hosted a large factory or mining operation would also have consumed massive amounts of water and energy on a daily basis. One could presume in many cases that those conditions have not changed substantially.
The fact that the land was already blighted by previous use only serves as one sound reason to explore this strategy. A number of grant and loan opportunities create incentives to develop these properties.
Assessment grants help recipients to lay the groundwork of studying the problem, planning out solutions, and working with the surrounding community. Cleanup Grants and a Revolving Loan Fund provide support to active efforts to clean up, or otherwise remediate, sites. For example, in May, New Baptist Church of Huntington received $500,000 to clean up a former CSX Rail Yard for their safe use.
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection maintains a Brownfields Revolving Fund. This program offers loans from “$25,000 up to available funds.” Preferred projects include those that increase “local and regional jobs and economic activity”, increases “tax revenue to support community economic revitalization,” and other criteria, including use of green energy infrastructure.
In Nitro, the site of the former Fike Chemical Company would appear to serve as an example of a solid candidate for cleanup in preparation for a data center, except for the fact that an industrial operation continues on site. Over a quarter of a century until 1983, different companies produced small batch chemical products. Even the most conscientious of operations will have some issues with chemicals and other toxic substances escaping containment. According to the latest report on site cleanup efforts in 2022, “the Site consists of an 11.9-acre former batch chemical production plant (former Chemical Plant) property, a 0.9-acre former Cooperative Sewage Treatment Plant (former CST) property about 500 feet west of the Chemical Plant property,” and contaminated groundwater attributed to releases from these two properties.”
Additionally it contained “chemical production areas, office and laboratory buildings, three waste lagoons, and drum and waste burial areas.” As one might expect, the drum and waste burial areas created the most problems as containers lost cohesion over time.
Contaminated areas where removal of materials was impractical received remediation, as well as a large “asphalt cap” (functioning as a parking lot) to hold contaminated soils in place.
The Fike Chemical site is still in use, but many brownfields are not. The Kanawha Valley, areas of North Central West Virginia, the coalfields of Southern West Virginia and other parts of the state may also offer a number of good potential locations.
Brownfields could host a number of other economic development projects that have raised hackles in certain communities, again because these sites have not had a pristine natural or traditional agricultural aspect in decades in some cases. It’s not often that serious economic development and environmental restoration go hand in hand.
Opinion pieces throw ideas out there for consideration. Many reasons may exist why this approach is not feasible. That said, if old industrial sites do make good fits, placing data centers and supporting elements to their operation in them could kill a number of birds with that single stone.