Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- Residents near Aligned's data center in West Jordan report significant noise issues.
- Aligned claims compliance with guidelines and encourages community engagement to address concerns.
- Data Bank emphasizes efficient resource use and noise reduction in their Utah data centers.
SALT LAKE CITY — When Tracy Bell moved into her West Jordan neighborhood years ago, she never expected that a new neighbor could make major impact on her everyday way of life there. She also never expected a large data center to show up just down the street.
"As soon as the center went in they started using their blowers," Bell said. "They're really loud. (It's) about the sound of about 10 lawn mowers out going in the neighborhood at the same time."
Bell is referring to Aligned's 55-acre campus. She's not the only neighbor who has concerns about the noise.
"We shouldn't have to leave our homes to go find sanity somewhere else," resident Teresa Sorensen said. "I don't like it because it decreased my property values. This is supposed to be my retirement home. I can't sell my home. Where am I supposed to go?"
A decibel meter, brought by KSL to the neighborhood, showed a reading of 70 decibels, similar to standing next to a vacuum cleaner, about a block away from the center. A spokesperson for Aligned told KSL the exhausts are from backup generators that "outside of regular, brief compliance testing, grid emergencies, or planned utility outages, this equipment sits mostly idle throughout the year."
In a statement, the spokesperson also said they operate in compliance with state and local guidelines.
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Data centers are expanding significantly, driven by demand for AI and corporate ambitions."We regularly engage with local officials and regulatory agencies and are committed to being a responsible neighbor while working to minimize impacts on surrounding residents," the statement reads. "We also encourage community members to contact us directly with questions or concerns, and we will continue to listen, engage, and address issues as they arise."
In another example, Joe Minarik, chief operating officer of Data Bank, says their several operations around the Salt Lake Valley provide examples of how they're doing that.
"We want to be good citizens from the data center industry," Minarik said.
Many modern data centers now use closed-loop cooling systems, which Minarik says allows them to keep water usage very low.
"One golf course uses seven times more water than all of our water usage in Utah for all of our data centers," Minarik explained. "It's in data centers' best interest to be efficient and use the least amount of water and the least amount of power as possible to manage through all of this growth."
We shouldn't have to leave our homes to go find sanity somewhere else.
–Resident Teresa Sorensen
Data Bank employees showed KSL around one of their six Utah data centers. Minarik says the water reused inside the closed-loop system for the 49,000 square foot center is the rough equivalent of three Olympic-sized swimming pools. He says they have not had to change out the water-glycol mix in the several years that the center has been up and running. The large pipes are cooled by the outside air during colder months, and by a series of fans and coolers during warmer times.
"We invest heavily in sound attenuation and dampeners that go around the generators and the cooling systems to kind of prevent noise," Minarik said. "There's already ordinances and legalities at the local counties and jurisdictions all put in place that you have to meet certain noise requirements. And we're below them all the time."
KSL couldn't hear any noise from the data center in the closest neighborhood. A few people contacted by KSL said they didn't have any issues with them as neighbors.
Minarik says that as data centers continue to be developed and expanded, including with the growth of artificial intelligence, it's important that the companies behind them work to contribute to their communities. He says that's especially crucial when it comes to challenges within the power grid.
"It's all about building up those transmission lines and building up the infrastructure," Minarik said. "We're supportive of doing that, supportive of paying our fair shares, helping manage into that."
