Data centers in Loudoun County, Virginia Photo: Hugh Kenny, Piedmond Environmental Council
By Lee Burnett
The task force developing land use controls for large industrial developments has wrapped up its work without addressing the thorny issue of low-level noise emanating from developments, such as data centers.
The Industrial Development Standards Task Force presented its recommendations to city boards beginning this week. The package was first heard Wednesday by the Planning Board, to be followed by the City Council’s Zoning Subcommittee on Nov. 17. The City Council has scheduled a public hearing for Nov. 24 to be followed by a second reading Dec. 8, and possible final adoption.
The Sanford Clean Air and Water Coalition, a main critic of the data center and sludge processing plant projects, says that city boards are rushing the review. Members are circulating petitions calling on the City Council to extend the moratorium, scheduled to expire Jan. 31.
“We made progress, but still there are a lot of questions,” said Alex Clary, a member of both the coalition and the Industrial Development Standards Task Force. “I don’t think we should necessarily wrap it up, although I appreciate all the effort that has gone into how we can effectively regulate these developments.”
While communities such as Biddeford, Westbrook and North Berwick have banned data centers outright, Sanford has enacted moratoriums and used the time to craft conditional use standards for city ordinances. Driving the process have been proposals for a 300-megawatt data center and a biosolids gasification plant in south Sanford. Developers of each project serve on the task force.
The package of recommendations forwarded to the Planning Board includes 10 pages of conditional use standards for data centers, 13 pages of conditional use standards for thermal processing facilities, and a four-page memo from City Manager Steve Buck.
The recommendations do not address noise levels emanating from data centers, even though there was discussion on the task force about emerging research that shows constant humming or rumbling from massive chillers, fans and backup generators interferes with sleep and induces anxiety and mental health conditions. Furthermore, task force members acknowledged that regulating low-level noise is problematic because the behavior of low-frequence sound waves is not well understood.
The Sanford Springvale News reached out to City Manager Buck several times earlier this week for an explanation but was unable to reach him. Buck’s executive administrator relayed a message from him indicating that the task force purposely refrained from drafting low-level noise standards because the standards would apply to all businesses, not just industrial developments, and should be addressed separately.
The Planning Board took comments for about a half hour Wednesday and tabled the matter to the next meeting. Speaking in favor were Keith McBride, executive director of the Sanford Regional Economic Growth Council; Andre Brousseau, superintendent of the Sanford Sewerage District; and City Manager Buck.
Speaking against were Jordan Matthews, Nick Serritella, Clary, Robert Hawes and Dagan Vandemark
In a telephone interview before the meeting, Clary said he acknowledges the difficulty in regulating low-level noise but said it underscored the need for the task force to continue its work.
“I question why we have to rush into this when it’s not well understood,” he said.
The task force also did not address two other concerns about data centers – water usage and impacts to electric rates — because state law gives the state, not local municipalities, the authority to regulate. The state has yet to specifically address those issues through the recommendations of the Maine Data Center Advisory Council. Until those regulations are in place, Clary said Sanford should not defer to the state.
Clary said the task force should have banned construction lasting through the night, unless it is indoors. “Allowing large lights and loud noise for 18 to 36 months is a big ask [of neighbors],” he said.
Clary said the task force should also have required the biosolids sourced by thermal processing facilities to meet the standards of the Sanford Sewerage District. Mark Lyons, business development manager for Aries Clean Technology, told task force members that Aries expects sewer districts to meet standards “but I’m not clear what the criteria are… We should have our own criteria.”
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