By Cary Shuman
Everett resident Stephanie McColaugh voiced her strong opposition to the construction of data centers in Everett during the public speaking segment of the March 23 City Council meeting. McColaugh, a member of the Planning Board and the Conservation Commission, told the Council in direct terms: “Please, when the [matter] is before you, vote to ban data centers from being constructed in the City.”
“I am not anti-developmentbut this is super-damaging to our air quality, noise pollution, water security, and our utility rates, potentially being hyped up by 25 percent,” said McColaugh. McColaugh’s presentation at the meeting and her release of a comprehensive research packet drew statements about data centers from Councilors Katy Rogers and Stephanie Martins.
In an ensuing interview, McColaugh said that one of the allowed uses for the Davis Companies in the Everett Docklands Innovation District (located on Beacham Street in Everett) is data centers.
“It’s not saying that they’re necessarily, actively building one right now or trying to build one, but it is an allowed use, and when I brought it up that that was a concern last summer, they have since been lobbying to maintain it as an allowed use,” explained McColaugh.
Based on research on what has become a national topic of discussion, McColaugh said her concerns about data centers are “electric rate increases to fund data center specific infrastructure upgrades to meet increased demand, since data centers need a lot of electricity to run 24/7; air pollution from backup generators or unsustainable electricity sources, excessive potable water usage, wastewater treatment plant overcapacity, heat islands, and noise pollution. We need to be proactive about ensuring we have policy safeguards in place to protect residents prior to building data centers.”
McColaugh said at the last Planning Board meeting approximately 30 residents spoke against having data centers built in the city. She also noted that more than 1,100 people have signed an online petition on the issue. McColaugh is a graduate of Florida State University with undergraduate and graduate degrees in geology. She was a teaching assistant at FSU in environmental capstone, geology, and geohazards, with years of experience conducting environmental research.
She is employed as project manager at an environmental consulting firm focusing on contamination assessment and remediation. She also works on infrastructure projects and on digital data collection strategy. McColaugh has become a prominent and highly respected advocate and environmentalist in Everett through her founding and leadership of the highly successful Cleanup Everett campaign and her positions on the Everett Planning Board and Everett Conservation Commission. A revised ordinance on data center restrictions is anticipated to be put before City Council at the April 6th meeting.
What is a data center? For this story, Stephanie McColaugh provided information defining “data centers.” A data center is a facility that houses and runs large computer systems including computer servers, data storage devices, and network equipment to store, manage, process, and transmit large amounts of data.