AI booms in NJ, with mixed reception and an uncertain future

By Gabriel Campos, Montclair YMCA Delegation

Jenna Williams of Vineland has become accustomed to rationing water when it gets really hot in the summer. For Williams and her neighbors, life has not been the same since DataOne, a data infrastructure company, began construction on a massive AI data center four miles away. 

“We’re not allowed to water the lawn, and we take showers every other day,” said Williams. 

The new data center in Vineland, Cumberland County, is part of a $17 billion contract that DataOne has with Microsoft. On March 21st, about 100 people protested at the site of the data center, becoming the latest flashpoint around AI infrastructure expansion in NJ.  

Protestors demanded an immediate halt to the project, citing environmental and public health concerns. Local farmer Michael Atkinson worries emissions from the data center will contaminate his flowers and negatively impact his water access.

 “Our wells around here are not very deep,” said Atkinson. “Am I gonna have to drop a new well? Am I going to have to drill deeper? It’s just a huge question that was never answered.”

Resistance to AI data centers is not unprecedented in NJ. Due to the presence of hundreds of protestors at a New Brunswick City Council meeting back in February, the construction of a new data center was cancelled. A day later in Burlington County, Pemberton became the first NJ municipality to ban the construction and operation of data centers.  

Data centers have been tied to rising electric bills in NJ, extreme water usage, and pollution directly. According to New Jersey Policy Perspective, the surge in data centers led to a 20% increase in electric bills this past summer. Large data centers can also use up to 5 million gallons of water a day. Additionally, data centers are responsible for a significant amount of noise pollution. The Environmental Health Project reports that data centers can produce sounds exceeding 90 decibels, around the volume of a car door slamming, at all hours. 

As eight more data centers in NJ have been announced or are under construction, in a state that already has the second most data centers in the Northeast, many New Jersey residents are rejecting this expansion while political leaders and company executives remain committed to the expansion of this new infrastructure. 

The expansion of AI infrastructure has appeared to be a bipartisan effort in some cases. Last year, President Donald Trump made a $500 billion private-sector investment in AI, which has helped expedite the creation of data centers across the country, NJ included. This year, one of former Democratic Governor Phil Murphy’s last acts as governor was to sign a $25 million AI research and development initiative with Nvidia and several state research universities. Murphy also vetoed bills aimed at creating transparency over data center energy and water usage. 

Meanwhile, CEO of DataOne, Charles-Antoine Beyney, insists that, “A data center…is something that is not creating that much disturbance.” 

Considering most New Jersey residents use AI, public backlash to the construction of AI infrastructure, and the current administration’s imprecise position on the subject, the future of AI in NJ remains uncertain.