Erin Brockovich Maps 142 US AI Datacentres
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- Erin Brockovich launched a website callout in April asking for community concerns about nearby AI datacentres; 3,862 people replied within a month, prompting her to build an open-source tracking map.
- The open-source map documented 33 US AI datacentres operational, 68 under construction, and 41 proposed as of 24 June, alongside 7,005 resident reports submitted through her online form.
- Utah approved a datacentre twice the size of Manhattan in May, exemplifying the 'hundreds and hundreds of acres' scale Brockovich likens to the Hinkley contamination case 'on steroids.'
- Hill County, Texas commissioners voted a year-long moratorium on datacentre construction, then faced a $100M lawsuit from developers and backed down, per the Texas Tribune.
- Guardian analysis found two-thirds of planned US datacentres sit in drought-stricken areas, with larger facilities requiring up to 5 million gallons of water daily for cooling.
- Residents near datacentres report water bills spiking from $22 to over $350 monthly, plus 24/7 generator noise and power surges in their neighbourhoods.
- Datacentre developers routinely sign NDAs with local officials, and Brockovich says councils are retroactively changing zoning laws to approve projects without resident input or environmental-impact assessments.
Why it matters: Local councils face an asymmetric fight: when they try to pause construction — as Hill County, Texas did — developers sue for $100M and the councils fold. With 142 facilities already mapped and two-thirds sited in drought-stricken regions, the bottleneck is no longer public awareness but the municipal legal capacity to resist.
