Every application is different

The objections to data centers appear to me to be drawn from a wide range of experiences, assembled into a chinese menu that is supposed to be applicable to every situation. I suspect many or none may apply to Saint Louis. For certain, water is NOT an issue here. We are at the confluence of the two largest rivers in the country. We are not pulling water out of the ground. We have a water treatment facility sized for nearly 3x our population. Noise can be mitigated. If we are willing to build miles of concrete sound walls along the interstates, we can mitigate the noise from a data center. Footprint is a non-issue. Take a look at the vacant property map for the city sometime. Electric power IS the one thing that needs real attention. But, of course, this is true for ANY new development in the city. I have heard no concern about the power consumption expected of the new NGA campus in north city. What about the huge new facility Boeing is building at the airport? Why is this data center different?

It was interesting to learn that we already have 6(?) small-ish data centers in the city. Who knew? They are not going away, any more than the internet was just a fad. So, we owe it to ourselves to integrate them smartly and derive the economic benefits before others do. We don't want to be like the ferry companies that opposed a bridge across the river, only to see the railroads go to Chicago.