The primary dangers regarding data center developments in Lycoming County focus on straining the local water supply, increasing electricity rates, disrupting rural residential life with constant noise, and destroying local farmland. As large-scale tech companies heavily target Central Pennsylvania, grassroots opposition has intensified, prompting Lycoming County Commissioners to urge local municipalities to implement strict zoning laws before developers arrive. Montgomery’s recent history demonstrates why this urgency matters.
Montgomery has faced significant municipal challenges in recent years. The borough eliminated its police department, forcing residents to rely on state police coverage.
Simultaneously, the municipality committed substantial funds to school infrastructure while historic buildings deteriorated, streets crumbled, and core services withered. We have a school that doubled in size when I was in middle school. That was only 20 years ago. The decision to spend heavily on one project while the community’s physical fabric decayed left Montgomery vulnerable and exhausted. I thank God every day for our volunteer fire and rescue workers. They are the heroes who have kept Montgomery afloat through all of this turmoil. Never has Montgomery owed so much to so few.
Property ownership patterns in Montgomery have changed. Historic buildings have been purchased, renovated cosmetically, and rented to tenants that public housing authorities would reject immediately due to safety concerns. Community members have expressed concerns about whether these investment patterns serve the town’s long-term stability and safety. This pattern of outside financial interests operating within the town, combined with municipal resource constraints, has left Montgomery with neither the capacity nor the flexibility to manage complex development negotiations.
Hyperscale data center facilities use millions of gallons of fresh water daily for cooling, threatening groundwater levels across the region. The Susquehanna River Basin Commission has warned that data centers consume water on par with major power plants, risking local aquatic habitats and lowered river levels. For a community already struggling with basic infrastructure, this additional strain becomes impossible to absorb.
An average AI data center can consume as much electricity as 100,000 homes, placing a massive burden on the local grid and driving up consumer electric bills. Environmental groups note that the state’s data center buildout is driving a drastic increase in natural gas fracking and pipeline infrastructure across Pennsylvania. To guarantee 24/7 uptime, facilities test massive diesel backup generators that release nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, worsening regional air quality.
Massive industrial complexes are being planned adjacent to quiet, rural residential neighborhoods. Farmers in Union and Lycoming counties have voiced severe concerns regarding the loss of prime, historic agricultural land to tech developers. For Montgomery specifically, data center development would represent the final conversion of remaining productive landscape into industrial infrastructure controlled by distant corporations.
Residents living near modern AI data centers report an uninterrupted, low-frequency buzzing or humming noise from large industrial cooling fans. A community already experiencing property abandonment cannot absorb additional environmental degradation without accelerating its own decline. The persistent noise degrades property values and disrupts the quiet character that rural communities depend on.
Under Pennsylvania law, municipalities cannot legally ban data centers entirely, meaning unprotected townships risk unregulated development if they do not pass local ordinances quickly. Montgomery’s experience demonstrates what happens when a community loses control of its own future. Putting this center in Allenwood would cast another ugly shadow across the Montgomery area. Data center development arriving in such circumstances would not be an economic opportunity. It would be another strain on resources already stretched beyond capacity.
Lycoming County Commissioners have urged action now, before developers arrive with legal teams and corporate capital. Montgomery’s window to establish local control and protect itself remains open, but only briefly. The question is whether the county will act decisively to prevent other communities from following Montgomery’s trajectory into decline.
