The St. Louis data center debate has intensified as a plan to convert roughly one million square feet of warehouse space into a new facility has triggered a lawsuit and mounting opposition, according to interviews and court filings.
TerraWatt CEO David Daneshforooz aims to redevelop a large industrial site in the Missouri city into a data center he says could help revive underused infrastructure. He said St. Louis has aging assets that are being underutilized and that responsibly built facilities can bring industry back to communities.
Residents and academics have pushed back. A biologist at Saint Louis University, Kasey Fowler-Finn, joined a lawsuit filed Friday seeking to stop the project. She cited concerns over noise, water consumption, electricity demand, and other environmental effects.
Fowler-Finn said there has been no environmental impact assessment and no low-frequency sound study, adding that she sees a lack of transparency about environmental and noise impacts.
The local dispute mirrors a wider hesitation around such facilities. A recent Gallup poll found that more than 70% of Americans do not want data centers in their area.
St. Louis data center plan at the center of AI-era concerns
The broader question of artificial intelligence looms over the project. Daneshforooz described apprehension about AI as rooted in fear of the unknown.
Fowler-Finn countered that worries are grounded in scientific evidence and argued communities must be careful about where and how large data centers are installed.
Daneshforooz also argued that hosting the infrastructure domestically is critical for data security. He asked where Americans’ information will be stored and suggested it is preferable to keep it in the middle of the country rather than in nations the United States cannot regulate.
Developers have pledged to pay for their own electricity, employ a closed-loop water system, and invest hundreds of millions of dollars into the local school system. This model has helped secure approvals in other cities, but it has yet to win over critics in St. Louis.
This model has helped secure approvals in other cities, but it has yet to win over critics in St. Louis, where local initiatives aimed at revitalizing communities are drawing growing attention.