Council votes down amendments on data center water usage rules
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(Editor’s note: This is the third story in a series on Monday night’s Marshalltown city council meeting and the ongoing debate over data center regulations in the community.)
After a five-minute recess over two hours into Monday night's meeting, the Marshalltown city council got back at it and proceeded to consider the proposed data center regulations from the Planning and Zoning Commission along with a host of amendments brought forward by Ward 1 Councilor Marco Yepez-Gomez.
On the heels of an amendment to increase the buffer yard distance from 100 to 200 yards failing, Yepez-Gomez proposed another one to break data center projects into small, large and hyperscale categories and amended his amendment by suggesting, as part of a conversation with P&Z Chairman Jon Boston, to classify them by acreage as opposed to megawatts.
Lonnie Hogeland felt that rules were already in place to govern the projects, and Mark Eaton questioned whether the council was opposed to large warehouses due to their size. Annie Grieshop said the lack of firm requirements in the regulations bothered her.
Yepez-Gomez reiterated that his goal was to promise residents in his ward that a hyperscale data center wouldn't be built in their backyard. The amendment he proposed would restrict hyperscale facilities to the overlay district and would still require special use permits to be obtained within the overlay district, and Assistant Housing and Community Development Director Clayton Ender noted that because all of the Edgewood lots are owned by the city, they would have to come to the council before they could be sold.
"I don't even know why we're discussing this. If we're in a city council meeting and we're trying to figure this out on the fly, this makes no sense. If this wasn't thought of before the meeting, we shouldn't be talking about it," Councilor Jeff Schneider said. "I like the ordinance as written pretty much, but we don't need to be differentiating."
Councilor Gary Thompson reminded him that councilors were not allowed to speak during the P&Z meetings and felt everyone should have a chance to propose amendments. Mayor Mike Ladehoff said he placed his trust in the commission and warned the council against hurting current industries with overly restrictive regulations.
Yepez-Gomez then withdrew his original amendments and motioned to send the size classification issue back to P&Z. It passed by a 4-3 margin with Schneider, Thompson and Greg Nichols opposed. The passage of that motion, City Administrator Carol Webb said, constituted enough of a change to delay the first reading of the ordinance until the meeting on Nov. 9, and Schneider asked for a motion of reconsideration, which requires a ⅔ majority.
"We're gonna set ourselves back a long time," he said.
Cahill indicated a willingness to reconsider her vote, but her motion still fell short of the required supermajority with Yepez-Gomez, Mitchell and Councilor Melisa Fonseca holding firm.
The next amendment he proposed required closed-loop cooling systems with no exceptions as a clause allows for adiabatic systems as a supplemental option.
"We were kind of told that there wouldn't be any water usage at all for data centers, so I guess this is a little bit more lenient than what we were told originally," Yepez-Gomez said.
Schneider indicated his opposition to the amendment and said his own amendment would only allow the adiabatic or evaporative cooling techniques in extreme circumstances, particularly on hot days.
"This is a more economical feature for these data centers, and it doesn't impact our water supply. In fact, it turns some of our wastewater, potentially, into a resource," he said.
During the public comment period, Layne Pieri told the council that they shouldn't just consider the water usage of the data center itself but the resulting load increase at the power plant, arguing that the comparison to a small restaurant was not accurate. Schneider responded that a gas turbine like the Bobcat Energy Center or other sources of energy like wind and solar do not use water, so he didn't feel that Pieri's statement was true.
Maggie Valentine questioned Ender on why the ordinance was written in such a way and criticized the characterization that the public is "misinformed" and "overreacting." The biggest problem she had was that Amir Atefi of Swarm Systems, the company behind the proposed data center in the Edgewood Industrial Park, had recommended the adiabatic clause, which she called "wildly inappropriate."
"People have made it clear that they're very concerned about water, so it feels like one of many not transparent things that are being written into the ordinance when people have been told it'll be closed loop only," Valentine said. "The fact that Amir is now saying, even though he said that, 'I want to do it anyway,' feels disgusting."
She also objected to the comparisons to homes and restaurants, arguing that the data centers do not sustain the community and instead only take things from people. April Long was similarly appalled by the prospect that Atefi had helped to write the regulations.
Roberto Gonzalez urged the council to represent the people of Marshalltown rather than developers, and Amber Lawthers leveled similar complaints about Atefi "writing the laws" because of his deep pockets.
"You represent us. You do not represent Amir Atefi. Amir Atefi does not represent us. We the people expect you, our elected officials, to represent us and protect us," she said.
Ender then admitted that the adiabatic clause was the direct result of a request from Atefi, and Cahill and Boston discussed the system in more detail -- with Boston clarifying that it is not considered to be either open or closed-loop. Mitchell asked why the city didn't simply require data centers to use no water at all for cooling, but Boston warned that the use of chemicals presented its own set of risks and added that the technology behind data centers would be continually evolving in the future.
A motion to require the closed loop water system failed by a 4-3 vote with Yepez-Gomez, Mitchell and Fonseca in favor. Schneider then proposed his own amendment allowing a small allotment for adiabatic cooling at a maximum of a million gallons per year -- less than half of what a typical restaurant uses. The cap for the system would be 250 hours per year, and temperatures would have to exceed 85 degrees with reporting requirements and a special use permit needed.
Grieshop called on the council to address the health risks of adiabatic cooling and gray water before the vote, and Yepez-Gomez said he hadn't seen the amendment before the deadline and Friday and would vote no. The motion also failed 4-3 with Schneider, Nichols and Cahill in favor.
After the meeting, Atefi shared a lengthy statement with the T-R explaining the reasoning behind the request and contending that it was considered just the same as other public input.
"I understand why it caught people off guard, and I should have explained it publicly myself, so I'll do that here. Noise has been the number one concern we've heard about data centers in Marshalltown. Many of the loudest ones people read about run their own power plants on site, usually gas turbines running around the clock. Marshalltown's ordinance requires grid connection and puts any on-site power plant through a separate approval, and P&Z deserves credit for that. Our plan here has always been grid power from Alliant, with backup generators that would only run in an outage or for short daytime testing under the city's noise rules. On a grid-connected building, the biggest source of sound is the cooling fans, and they work hardest on the hottest summer afternoons. Without adiabatic assist, a cooling system has to be sized for the hottest few hours of the year, which means more coolers and more fans on the site, more noise, and more electricity used at the peak. Adiabatic assist wets pads on the outside of the coolers so the air passing through is cooler on those few afternoons, which lets the fans slow down and eases the load on the grid at the same time. Even a modest drop in fan speed makes a noticeable difference in sound. We believe a project like ours can meet the noise ordinance without it, but we'd rather go further and keep noise as low as possible, even on the hottest days. Our neighbors' comfort matters more to us than the minimum," he wrote. "The main cooling system is a closed loop, and the water inside it never leaves the loop. The pads do use some water, which is why the ordinance only allows them as a supplement, never as the main way to cool the building year-round. Every community will strike its own balance between water, power and noise. Given what we've heard since we first came to Marshalltown, we think a small amount of water, used for a few hours at a time on only the hottest summer afternoons, is the right trade for a quieter, more efficient building. We'd welcome reasonable limits on hours and gallons, and we'd be glad to report our actual water use to the city every year so nobody has to take our word for it."
He went on to credit the P&Z Commission for its work on the ordinance.
"They held listening sessions, studied what other communities have done, and built their recommendations on facts. The ordinance keeps noise-producing equipment 600 feet from homes unless a noise study shows a project can meet the noise ordinance closer in, and never less than 300 feet. It requires 100-foot buffers next to residential neighborhoods and closed-loop or other water-conserving primary cooling. The council voted to require a noise study for every project, which we support, since it's something we'd do anyway. We hope the council adopts the ordinance when it comes back," Atefi said. "Marshalltown is doing something a lot of towns are going to wish they had. It listened, did its homework, and is writing clear rules that let the community decide what kind of development it wants and on what terms. That's how a town ends up with projects that grow the tax base for its schools and bring good jobs while protecting the neighborhoods around them. Other Iowa communities facing these same questions will be able to start from Marshalltown's work, and the people who showed up to meeting after meeting and spoke their minds deserve a lot of the credit for that. We're grateful to the council, the commission and city staff for their professionalism through a long and difficult process. Marshalltown is close to getting this right, and we'd be proud to be part of what it builds next."
Contact Robert Maharry at (641) 753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.