Three environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit Monday against the developers of a pair of data center campuses in San Antonio, claiming the facilities and their associated gas-fueled power plants have been developed without the required permits, pollution-control technology and public input.
The Environmental Integrity Project, the Sierra Club and Public Citizen filed their suit against Denver-based data center developer Vantage and its Houston-based energy supplier VoltaGrid in San Antonio federal court.
VoltaGrid built and manages the colocated gas-fueled power plants that energize the Vantage data centers on the West Side. Together, the power plants have a 405-megawatt capacity — enough electricity to power a fifth of the homes in San Antonio, according to the suit.
An additional 151 backup diesel generators, intended to keep the data centers running around the clock in case of an outage, would add 455 megawatts of generation capacity, the environmental groups maintain.
The data centers have the potential to release thousands of tons of air pollutants — including those that cause smog, which can trigger asthma attacks and cause lung damage — in an area already failing federal standards for smog, the petition further argues. Indeed, one of the two computing facilities is located next to an allergy clinic.
“Communities should not have to suffer excessive amounts of air pollution from data centers and power plants that fail to follow the Clean Air Act,” said Mary Greene, director of enforcement at the Environmental Integrity Project. “We’re suing Vantage and VoltaGrid because industrial development at this scale requires public input and stringent permits that prioritize health and air quality over the unbridled race for an economic edge.”
The Current was unable to reach officials with Vantage and VoltaGrid for immediate comment on the suit.
In July, the environmental groups sent the companies a notice of intent to sue, arguing they had violated the federal Clean Air Act. At that time, the groups also notified the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. However, the companies failed to make any progress in addressing the violations, prompting the Monday lawsuit, the groups said in a press release.
Both of the Vantage data centers are near SeaWorld in the industrial zone of the Westover Hills neighborhood, with one located on Rogers Road and the other on Omicron Drive. The one on Rogers Road was already “partly operational” before officials with Vantage and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) held their first public hearing. During that meeting, the proposal was met with fierce opposition from the community, with many neighbors claiming they could no longer sleep due to the constant hum.
Others worried about the potential pollution caused by the data center’s diesel backup generators. Vantage officials said in the hearing that the diesel backup generators would only run in the event of an emergency. But residents still wondered how frequently emergencies would occur and what constituted an emergency.
“Texans increasingly distrust data center developers, and for good reason,” said Nandan Joshi, attorney with Public Citizen Litigation Group. “Texans deserve to hear from developers about the pollution their facilities produce in local communities. The rush to build data centers should not come at the expense of public input and community health.”
Due to the size of the projects and their potential pollution, the environmental groups allege the companies should have obtained “major source” pollution control permits as required by the federal Clean Air Act before starting construction. Major source permits require the best available pollution control technology and pollution monitoring. Additionally, major source permits require public participation, including public notice, comment and the right to request a hearing and appeal the permit.
Instead, Vantage and VoltaGrid partnered to build “behind the meter” power plants, circumventing Texas’ grid interconnection bottleneck and exploiting its fast-track approval process for minor pollution sources, the environmental groups maintain.
Texas law allows Vantage to treat its power source as a separate entity, enabling the data center to apply for the same minor-source air permit that a laundromat would. These minor source permits do not require the same level of pollution controls or monitoring, nor do they afford the public an opportunity to weigh in or to object.
A report by the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) estimates that the Vantage/VoltaGrid power plants are among at least 74 “behind-the-meter” plants nationally. Collectively, these plants could become responsible for 62 million tons per year of greenhouse gas pollution, the report found. This would have the climate-warming impact of 140 million cars and trucks driving for a year — or the annual emissions of either Australia or France.
According to the legal complaint, the environmental groups seek to stop all construction and operation activities at the data centers and their power plants until they undergo the rigorous permitting the Clean Air Act and Texas law requires for major polluters, including considering public input.
“Vantage and VoltaGrid want to come into this Texas neighborhood and dump thousands of tons of air pollutants into an already smoggy community — and they want to do it without the proper permits or even hearing what impacted people have to say,” said Josh Smith, senior attorney for the Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program. “Our lawsuit sends a clear sign that we cannot allow the AI industry to go rogue with our health and future.”
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