The Tonawanda Seneca Nation and the Sierra Club have filed a lawsuit seeking to halt the development of massive data centers at a tech park in Genesee County.
The petition, filed Tuesday in New York state Supreme Court, is the latest in a string of litigation over one aspect or another of the controversial Science, Technology, and Advanced Manufacturing Park (STAMP) project in the town of Alabama. The complaint accuses the Genesee County Economic Development Center (GCEDC), which oversees the project, of failing to do additional environmental review before greenlighting a data center for the site.
“To fast track the development of a data center and jump start the stalled STAMP Site, the GCEDC resorted to taking shortcuts around the very environmental review standards and procedures that it originally established to protect the sensitive cultural and environmental resources surrounding the STAMP Site,” the petition reads.
Earlier this year, GCEDC went through the process of selecting a “hyperscale” data center to occupy the site. Three proposals were put on the table for the site, with a proposal from Stream US selected to fill the site. The project, by far the largest in the region, would cover 900,000 square feet and use 250 megawatts of power. Data centers of that scale are largely used for artificial intelligence.
The project is expected to cost $6.3 billion and is seeking $471.6 million in sales and mortgage tax exemptions, according to proposal documents. It would create roughly 122 full-time jobs.
“The Sierra Club stands with the Tonawanda Seneca Nation to oppose GCEDC’s plans to turn this pristine and ecologically sensitive area into an ill-conceived and recklessly planned industrial mega-site,” a joint statement from the Sierra Club and The Seneca Nation reads. “The data center industry is notorious around the world for its excessive noise, air pollution, excessive water use and the consumption of massive amounts of energy.”
The 1,250-acre project has long been a subject of ire for the Tonawanda Seneca Nation due to its proximity to several delicate wetland ecosystems. The site sits just outside the border of the Tonawanda reservation and its ancestral forest known as The Big Woods, and just a few yards from the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge.
It is positioned on delicate wetlands, which has spurred several lawsuits by The Seneca Nation and neighboring Orleans County. One of them deals with the development of a sewage pipeline planned to run from the site into nearby Oak Orchard Creek.
That work was halted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last year.
Started conceptually in 2009 as an economic development project meant to attract workers from both the Buffalo and Rochester markets, the STAMP project officially got off the ground in 2021, when it received its first tenant, hydrogen power company Plug Power.
But beyond its legal and environmental difficulties, the project has had some trouble attracting tenants to develop the site. Plug Power, racked with financial issues, has halted development at the site. Another tenant, vacuum pump manufacturer Edwards Vacuum, began construction last year but has yet to open on the site.
On Thursday, July 3 at noon, Connections on WXXI will host a conversation with members of the Seneca Nation and economic development experts on the future of the STAMP site and its various challenges.
