CITY OF NORTH TONAWANDA, N.Y. (WKBW) — Paul and Sharon Demers have shared that they can no longer sleep with their windows open.
The North Tonawanda couple lives across the railroad tracks from a cryptomining plant and the noise, they said, has become part of everyday life.
"You can't go to bed at night and leave the windows open. It's just out of the question."
Now, that same facility wants to transition to an AI data center, raising questions about what these operations could mean for neighborhoods across Western New York.
Artificial intelligence can seem invisible. It lives inside smart devices, computers, laptops and chatbots. Behind every AI prompt is a massive network of computers working around the clock, housed in buildings known as AI data centers.
Before joining the University at Buffalo, Professor Kevin Cleary helped design and operate AI data centers. Today, part of his job is to teach AI and data center operations.
"When we think about what's going on either with cryptomining or when we think about artificial intelligence, what's really happening, it's all just really big, complex, algebraic formulas," Cleary said.
Unlike the computers used every day, these facilities are filled with thousands of servers powered by graphics processing units, or GPUs. While those powerful computers solve large mathematical problems, they also generate large amounts of heat.
"When we think about a data center, one of the biggest enemies of these data centers or servers or a compute system in general is heat. It turns out that the nominal operating temperatures for these servers or these GPUs. 95% to 99% of the year, the temperature outside in Buffalo is perfectly fine to run these servers with," Cleary said.
That is one of the main reasons companies are looking at Western New York. If outside air can cool the servers, it reduces the energy needed for air conditioning.
According to Cleary, the region also offers industrial properties, an established transportation network, a skilled workforce, and existing infrastructure. He says those advantages could translate into long-term jobs.
Cleary estimates a large AI data center could employ roughly 50 to 200 permanent workers, including technical, trades, HVAC, and security positions.
Town of Tonawanda resident Don Hirschbeck supports expanding data centers in Western New York and believes that is exactly what the region needs.
"Well, I think we probably need it. It's the future," Hirschbeck said.
"More industries leaving. We need the jobs. We need the tax base. Why wouldn't you want more jobs, more tax base? It's the future, but it'll go to Ohio, it'll go to Pennsylvania. We won't do nothing," Hirschbeck said.
However, Cleary says the benefits only matter if communities are not left paying the price. He believes any company coming to Western New York must recognize the region's industrial history and prove it is committed to sustainable operations.
"We have the scars of big industries in the past that haven't necessarily taken care of the environment," Cleary said.
He pointed to past industrial projects like Love Canal and the old Tonawanda Coke site, both of which exposed residents to industrial chemicals.
Cleary says AI data centers require significant electrical infrastructure, and companies should help pay for those upgrades while investing in renewable energy.
"Are they willing to make investments in terms of from an ecological perspective, what kind of renewable energy, what kind of renewable resources are they either building into that data center or reinvesting in the community so that we can offset some of those extreme energy costs? Will renewable energy completely cover the operations of a data center? No, it won't, but it's a good start," Cleary said.
Those are the same concerns residents in North Tonawanda have been raising for the last five years.
Residents say noise from the existing cryptomining facility has become their biggest nuisance. The city ordinance limits overnight sound levels to 50 decibels. Residents say they have numerous documented readings well above that, using phone apps.
In April, North Tonawanda neighbors living near the Digi Power X building on Erie Avenue, filed a class-action lawsuit against the company through a New York City law firm.
After the 11 p.m. newscast, I went out to measure it myself. Sound levels from the plant across the street registered just over 60 decibels on a sound level monitor app.
City officials are continuing to investigate while the city's extended one-year moratorium remains in place.
"We feel like it is in the best of our interest to extend this moratorium," Mayor Tylec said. "For us here, in North Tonawanda, our number one concern is obviously the noise and whatever we can do to rectify it."
Deborah Gondek serves on the North Tonawanda Climate Smart Communities Task Force. She says her biggest concern is not what is happening inside the building, but what is happening outside of it.
"I think the concern is that they're coming into communities who aren't prepared for it. It's a relatively new and unregulated technology, so North Tonawanda is kind of the case study for what can happen and all the things that can go wrong if you don't have proper requirements and monitoring in place," Gondek said.
"Climate Smart Communities Task Force has worked really hard over the past several years to identify ways to reduce our greenhouse emissions in our city, and Digihost comes in and their wasteful energy practices all but wipe out all the progress that we've made," Gondek said.
I reached out to the state Department of Environmental Conservation about these concerns and was told in a statement that:
"World Generation X's electrical generating station is operating in compliance with its DEC air permit."
-New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
For Cleary, the question is not whether AI data centers belong in Western New York but whether the technology can grow responsibly.
"I think we have the talent. I think we have the workforce. I think that as the city strives to reinvent itself as a tech hub, well, data centers are a big part of that reinvention," Cleary said.
I reached out numerous times to World Generation X, or Digi Power X, for comment and a tour of the inside of the facility and have yet to hear back.
North Tonawanda is just one city in Western New York. This summer, Niagara Falls and the Town of Tonawanda have had discussions about building AI data centers.
For now, things are on pause. New York State Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order on July 14, implementing the first statewide moratorium in the nation on new, large-scale AI data center developments, allowing more time to research the impacts on communities and explore regulations that could be implemented.
