Proposed Florida Datacenter Raises Fears for Everglades Waters

A proposed hyperscale datacenter on 202 acres of land in western Palm Beach County, Florida, has alarmed environmentalists who say it could damage Everglades wetlands that the federal government and the state have spent a combined $6 billion to restore.

The project, known as Project Tango, would sit about 16 miles west of Mar-a-Lago, near the northern edge of the Everglades. Local advocates say waste heat from the 600MW facility could raise water temperatures in the surrounding watershed, worsening toxic cyanobacteria blooms already stressed by drought, fertilizer runoff and warm temperatures.

"Our watershed is really complex," said Reinaldo Diaz, founder of Lake Worth Waterkeeper. "Ours is more like a spiderweb. That's why the impacts would be far reaching."

Blue-green algae blooms have covered nearly half of Lake Okeechobee in recent summers, producing a toxin called microcystin that can sicken people and animals and contaminate drinking water. On July 30, the Florida Department of Health in Palm Beach County issued a health alert over cyanobacteria in the lake.

A 600MW datacenter could, at peak capacity, use as much electricity as roughly half a million U.S. homes, based on federal residential usage estimates. Earthjustice attorney Christina Reichert, representing the Western Palm Beach Community Alliance, said a hyperscale facility could bring water, air and sound impacts not covered by the site's existing light industrial zoning.

Developer PBA Holdings says the facility would use a closed-loop cooling system to reduce water consumption. But Diaz said the heat generated would still need to go somewhere, and even a small temperature increase could fuel bacterial blooms in waterways connected to the Everglades and nearby drinking water systems.

At a Palm Beach County zoning hearing last month, residents raised concerns about the project's proximity to an elementary school roughly 1,200 feet away, along with noise, traffic and energy costs. After more than 12 hours of testimony, commissioners voted 5-1 to deny an expansion of the proposed datacenter. Two additional administrative applications that could add square footage remain pending.

President Trump downplayed neighbors' concerns at a press conference last month, saying, "You have to convince your community how great these things [are]. You can't fight it. You have to go with it." Sue Ellen Loyzelle, a founding member of the community alliance who lives nearby, said more regulatory safeguards are needed beyond Trump's non-binding Ratepayer Protection Pledge.