Residents in Dowagiac, Michigan, in the United States have launched a lawsuit against a data centre operator over the relentless, high-pitched whining sound they say is emanating day and night from a data centre located in the city.
The frustrated residents are suing Alliance Cloud Services, a subsidiary of Hyperscale Data, and alleging that the facility has emitted constant noise for approximately two years, disrupting their sleep, outdoor activities, and daily lives. Several neighbors likened the sound to a vacuum cleaner running continuously inside their homes.
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The data centre began as a Bitcoin mining operation before the company announced plans to pivot toward artificial intelligence (AI) computing and advanced robotics. Residents say the company promised it had acquired acres of additional land to help limit possible noise pollution. The company allegedly told residents that if noise mitigation efforts did not work, it would purchase their properties from them.
The city responded to the noise complaints by introducing an industrial noise ordinance that limited sound levels to 65 decibels during the day and 55 decibels at night, and fined the data centre operator for alleged violations.
Hyperscale Data has reportedly challenged the city’s noise measurements and collection methodology.
The lawsuit is one of many being waged against data centre operators across the United States.
In Wisconsin, residents living near a Fairwater data centre have filed a class-action lawsuit against the Microsoft, alleging unreasonable and excessive noise from the facility.
In other parts of the country, residents living near data centres have shared shocking photos and video of discoloured drinking water in their homes, with many forced to purchase clean water for drinking, cooking, and bathing.
Many large-scale data centres use evaporative cooling systems, with some facilities using use millions of gallons of water in a single day.
One study estimated that AI-driven data centres could consume 1.7 trillion gallons of water globally by 2027.
According to the ABC, Australia has emerged as the premier destination for data centre development and investment outside of the United States, with more than $150 billion in investment up for grabs.
And while state and federal governments are keen to do business with data centre operators and AI fiants, there’s already been pushback from Australians.
Residents living in New South Wales’ Blue Mountains rallied against a Sydney-based civil engineering and construction company with plans to build a data centre in Katoomba, forcing it to withdrawn its development application.
The Stop Data Centres Blue Mountains group cited concerns about 24/7 low-frequency noise intrusion, launching a petition and filing formal objections with council.
Stop Data Centres Blue Mountains said in a statement, “We’re not done. The developer has been clear: they haven’t ruled out a future application. Their statement says they want to ‘undertake further consideration’ and may come back with a revised proposal—this time with earlier community engagement.
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“And the bigger issue hasn’t gone away. The state government is actively courting data centres for NSW. Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said in March that NSW wants to be ‘a destination for global data centre investments.’ The planning loophole—Clause 2.31 of the NSW Infrastructure SEPP—that let this DA happen in the first place is still there. It will let the next one happen too, somewhere in NSW. Maybe here again.”
