As Pennsylvania’s artificial intelligence industry starts to take off, Upper Burrell residents say they still feel left in the dark about a data center coming to the township.

While officials work toward an ordinance that would impose zoning and permitting guidelines for any potential data center development, progress continues on the TECFusions data center already underway.

Sue Baxter said she feels protections promised by the township aren’t coming fast enough and township officials aren’t giving enough weight to residents’ concerns.

“They just kind of write you off,” Baxter said. “It’s been three months, and they still have nothing to show.”

Baxter, 60, has lived in the township for 30 years. Her husband, Al, has lived there his whole life.

Their property is next to the TECFusions site along Seventh Street Road and White Cloud Road.

Baxter said she’s worried about health, noise and environmental impacts, especially increased air pollution from diesel generators, higher energy bills and low-vibration frequencies affecting her migraine condition.

TECFusions founder Simon Tusha said the center would not have negative environmental impacts and that it wouldn’t be loud.

“It is very important to us that we do not affect the environment and we do not affect the community,” Tusha said.

Township supervisors Chairman Ross Walker said the township is working to address residents’ concerns and ensure protections.

Already a data center

Florida-based TECFusions will operate the center out of the former Alcoa/Arconic Research Development campus, which it bought in 2024. The company was awarded a $2 million Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant to build the multiphase, hyper-scale center.

Renovation work to the existing building has been underway in anticipation of going live soon, Tusha said.

“The only thing we’re doing right now is we’re updating the data center so it can support AI loads, because the density is a little bit different,” he said.

Though the Alcoa/Arconic Research campus was Alcoa’s primary research center, it later was a technology center for Arconic, including a data center.

“The issue is that we think that these are apples to oranges, that what was there with Arconic was one thing and what TECFusions is going to build is a completely different thing,” said Gillian Graber, executive director of advocacy group Protect PT.

Protect PT is a nonprofit based in Westmoreland County, focused primarily on community, policy, education and legal advocacy opposed to fracking. The group recently extended its work to include data centers.

“We got involved with data centers really because of the Upper Burrell site,” Graber said.

Tusha, however, said the Arconic site already was a data center and all data centers are essentially the same: “rooms that have computers in them.”

“The data center has existed there for 10 years,” Tusha said. “I don’t understand why all of a sudden there’s a concern for something that’s already been there and been operational for a very long time. … It was built by Alcoa as their data center for their corporate headquarters many, many years ago.”

Tusha said the goal is to eventually expand beyond the site’s current structures, but there is no clear timeline or plan yet for how that would happen.

The power issue

Once tenants fill the center, it could use up to 3 gigawatts of power, though it will likely take about 20 years to complete the site build-out, TECFusions previously told TribLive.

That would be more power than Pittsburgh uses.

In 2024, Pittsburgh’s peak energy use was 2.7 gigawatts, according to NEXTPittsburgh.

To lessen the burden on the local power grid, TECFusions plans to generate power using natural gas wells already on the property.

By producing some of the electricity it needs via on-site natural gas wells, Tusha said, the company is willing to eventually return power to the PJM Interconnection energy grid, which services Pennsylvania.

“We’re here to support the community,” he said.

Still, resident Russell Ciappetta said he’s concerned about increased electricity costs and the value of his property decreasing.

He said he also hopes the site will employ scrubbers or filters that remove pollutants from exhaust.

“When I worked at an underground mine and we had diesel equipment, we used scrubbers on the equipment. They would cut down on the smell of the diesel and the smoke,” Ciappetta said.

Graber said using natural gas at the facility risks increased air pollution.

“The issue with that is, that means a gas-fired power plant and some type of gas-processing facility, which is going to add more pollution to the environment,” Graber said.

Tusha said operations at the site have to comply with all local, state and federal Environmental Protection Agency standards, including being subject to stack testing, which measures the quality of site emissions for pollutants.

“There’s no environmental concerns around it,” he said. “There’s no additional carbon emissions in any way, shape or form.”

Ciappetta said his property is near a gas well and that he often hears pumps running when he’s out on his patio. He worries the data center also will be loud.

“I would like to see some noise barriers to cut down on the noise,” he said.

Tusha said noise would not be an issue.

“Even if the power goes out and the generators are running, you can’t hear the generators,” he said. “You have to be standing next to the generator to hear it running. So people who have houses miles away, or even at the street, won’t hear anything or even see anything.”

Local rules

Township supervisors are researching their ordinance but do not have a projected date for its completion.

Township solicitor Steve Yakopec said the research includes looking at ordinances passed by other municipalities and analyzing a “model ordinance” made by environmental nonprofit PennFuture.

Yakopec said they looked at ordinances from nearby Gilpin Township and Londonderry Township in Dauphin County.

Protect PT is in communication with the township as they work on it, Graber said.

“We’ve been communicating with the solicitor to give them ideas and suggested protections that they could pursue for a data center ordinance,” she said. “We hope that they would look at what type of energy is being used at the site and the impacts to that particular type of energy.

“Our hope is that they will craft something quickly, and our hope also is making sure that they do their research to ensure that the ordinance is very robust and based on science.”

An ordinance, however, only applies to developments that are started after the ordinance is passed, said Scott Chermak, Upper Burrell’s code enforcement officer.

Because TECFusions already was issued a building permit for the site’s existing buildings, developments there would be grandfathered into current policy, even if a new ordinance is passed, he said.

“They were issued a permit probably about a month ago, and they just submitted for Phase 2 about a week ago,” Chermak said.

This week, the township supervisors took a trip to Clarksville, Va., to tour a TECFusions data center there, Walker said.

The intent of the trip was to inform the ordinance writing and to ask TECFusions more questions about the project.

“We have to ask them what their plans are, what’s the impact on the community,” Walker said. “I don’t think we sent them any questions (in advance), but we do have a lot of questions for them.”

Tusha said the township has not notified him that they are working on an ordinance.

“They haven’t discussed that with me,” he said. “I’m more than happy to host them and (alleviate) any concerns that they may have.”

What’s next for Upper Burrell?

A public town hall will be held at 6 p.m. May 5 at Penn State New Kensington’s theater to discuss the data center plans.

TECFusions representatives and township officials will be present to answer questions.

Baxter hopes the town hall will clear up some uneasiness, as one of the main drivers of community concern is the scattered information and lack of clear plans for the project’s scope.

“It’s just hard to piece everything together,” she said.

Graber said she hopes the community will be involved and heard during the entire process toward the data center’s operation.

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