The race to build bigger and better data centres to develop and train artificial intelligence is causing concern for one group of local residents.
A proposal currently before the Victorian Planning Department would, if granted, allow the NextDC M3 Data Centre in Melbourne’s West Footscray to expand to about four times its current size.
The proposal has been granted a fast-tracked ministerial permit process but is still being considered at this stage.
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Citizens of Tottenham — a group of residents living within 500m of what they say is already a “monolithic” centre — is standing against the planned expansion, saying it would only exacerbate pollution and noise issues in their suburban area.
Local father Sean Brown said the noise and traffic disruptions from a prior expansion, approved in 2021, had already caused headaches for residents.
Brown authored a 120-page submission to the Planning Department on behalf of Citizens of Tottenham, claiming the proposed further expansion would affect more than 2,600 people who live in about 1000 homes within 500m of the NextDC centre — as well as another, already approved data, centre for another tech company which is expected to break ground later this year just hundreds of metres away.
A kindergarten, primary school, playgrounds and sports fields are also within the 500m boundary of either centre.
“The construction has been a nightmare,” Brown told 7NEWS.com.au.
“It has just led to constant noise, light and heavy vehicles going up and down our streets all the time.
“My son got woken up at about 5am today by one.”
Citizens of Tottenham member Sean Brown and his family. Credit: Sean Brown
The sound of construction isn’t the only noise impacting residents, with Brown’s submission reporting a maddeningly constant hum coming from the centre’s cooling systems among a number of other issues.
“Constant noise from cooling systems operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, requiring the installation of white noise machines in residential bedrooms including children’s rooms,” the submission reads.
“Light pollution of sufficient intensity that residents describe midnight as appearing like midday, requiring block-out blinds in homes adjacent to the facility.
“Repeated excavation of local streets for power and data cabling, with the street adjacent to the facility having been excavated on at least 11 occasions by multiple contractors.”
Locals also claim construction vehicles and equipment have led to a lingering smell of diesel, aggravated by the 40-odd generators used to maintain a level power supply at the centre if the power grid cannot provide enough.
The data centre had to run off the generators when a storm caused a blackout earlier this year, spewing black smoke into the air according to Brown.
“One of the stacks, it was just belching black smoke,” he said.
“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, it was a shocker.”
The group is trying to stop a fast-tracked proposal to expand NextDC M3 data centre in West Footscray. Credit: Sean Brown
Another local said in the submission that, on the morning of the blackout, the smell of diesel was so intense she had to rush her child from the house to the car for school drop off, fearing it would trigger an asthma attack.
Brown’s submission also notes data collected by locals using commercially available air quality readers to determine the amount of air pollution.
While accepting the data is community driven and not perfect, Brown said a reader near the centre showed the air was “heavily dominated by diesel combustion” when compared with another reader kilometres away.
Brown claims some residents have decided to “sell their homes as a direct consequence of amenity impacts” from the data centre.
A Change petition calling for help in opposing the expansion, and claiming they will have “little recourse” if the proposal is accepted, has gathered more than 2,000 signatures.
“If this permit is approved by the Planning Minister, there is no right of appeal, even to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal,” the petition reads.
“The next step is a Supreme Court Review, which only determines legality, not outcomes for local communities.”
NextDC was granted permission to go through a fast-tracked ministerial permit process for the expansion through the state’s Development Facilitation Program, as it would increase investment into Victoria.
“Every proposal is considered on its merits and as this proposal is currently under consideration it would be inappropriate to comment further,” the Victorian Government told 7NEWS.com.au.
NextDC was approached for comment on the opposition and concerns raised by residents.
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