Reader Drew Knox (hmmm, Drew Knox–I wonder…Sen. Andy Knox was a key proponent, and sponsor, of The Coastal Zone Act) beat me to it. But it is, in fact, true. From the Spotlight Delaware report:
Delaware’s environmental agency ruled Wednesday morning that a plan for a massive data center near Delaware City is not allowed under the state’s Coastal Zone Act.
This decision could stop the project from moving forward entirely, unless developer Starwood Digital Ventures wins an appeal or makes major changes to its design.
The Delaware General Assembly passed the Coastal Zone Act in 1971 to protect the state’s coastal areas from the impacts of heavy industry.
The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) decided that the proposed data center near Delaware City, dubbed Project Washington, is not allowed under the law primarily because of its diesel generators.
The data center plan calls for 516 backup diesel generators that would operate in the case of a power outage. They would together need 2.5 million gallons of stored diesel, which DNREC Secretary Gregory Patterson called “entirely unprecedented” in his ruling.
“The large tank farm that is incorporated into this proposal will pose exactly the types of risks that justify the categorical exclusion of such a tank farm from the Coastal Zone,” Patterson wrote.
The most backup generators currently at a facility in the Coastal Zone is eight, he wrote.
A major shout-out to DNREC Secretary Patterson. And, yes, to the Governor who appointed him.