Huge data center at STAMP would squander resources, miss purpose of site

Editor:

The current proposal from the GCEDC is to build a huge data center on the STAMP site in Genesee County.  A data center will have a large negative ecological impact (including high noise levels), require enormous public subsidies (almost $4M per job created) and produce relatively few jobs.

It is the antithesis of the original vision for STAMP. The payback time for the enormous financial inducements is in excess of a century – an absolutely terrible investment. The one advantage it offers the GCEDC is that it requires huge amounts of electricity, and thus may help bring electric power to a site that currently doesn’t have any.

A staggering fact is that  the site, which began construction in 2014, currently lacks water, sewer, and electricity infrastructure!  Water will have to be piped in, possibly through protected lands.

The current proposal is to pump raw sewage and industrial wastewater to Oakfield, where it will be treated and dumped into Oak Orchard Creek, a waterway that is critical for the multimillion dollar sport fishing industry in Orleans County, and that is already classified as ecologically impaired. An expensive electric substation will also have to be constructed by somebody – like the data center? –  in order to power the place.

Much of the failure of STAMP lies with the siting decision. The decision to build the complex 1) in a rural, sparsely populated area, 2) on what are essentially wetlands, 3) adjacent to multiple environmentally protected areas, and 4) bordering the Tonawanda-Seneca Nation, reflected insufficient consideration of environmental and ethical issues. Protected lands are rare and need to be preserved, not threatened.

The Tonawanda Seneca culture is closely wedded to nature and the land. The threats to the land from industrial pollution are real. The very existence of STAMP is an affront to the Nation – the latest in a centuries-long series of insults. They don’t deserve this. It is morally wrong to build a mammoth industrial site on the border of their nation.

In summary, in spite of all the hype, the genuine good intentions of its proponents, the money spent, and the hard work by well-meaning people, the reality is that STAMP is in the wrong place.

In Its present location STAMP is a failure, and no amount of good intentions or additional taxpayer money will alter that fact. It is time to recognize reality, reject the truly horrible idea of a data center, and make the painful decision to pull the plug on STAMP.  We built it in the wrong place, and they did not and will not come.

David Giacherio

Kent