Community shares concerns about proposal to turn former crypto plant on Seneca Lake into AI data center

PENN YAN, N.Y. — A community forum is happening on Tuesday night in Yates County to discuss a proposal to turn the former Greenidge Generation cryptomining plant on Seneca Lake into an AI data center.

Residents of the Town of Torrey are holding the forum at Seneca Stag Brewing in Penn Yan starting at 6 p.m. News10NBC’s Garrett Chan has been following the story for weeks and spoke with neighbors who said they’re worried about environmental impacts, emissions, noise, and water use connected to the facility.

Greenidge, the plant in the Village of Dresden, is seeking to become an AI data center under the name Vulcan Infrastructure and Power. In a statement, the president of Greenidge said the change is in the computing power from cryptocurrency to “high-performance computing.”

Concerns from neighbors

One neighbor, Leah Murray, said she’s skeptical and hopes the community forum educates people about the impacts on those living near the facility, including the noise.

“It’s almost like an idling train or a large idling truck. It’s constant. It just is always there. The town of Torrey is more than just the village of Dresden. You know, there are residents and farms and outlying areas that may not be aware of it,” Murray said.

Area residents have been urging the Torrey Town Board to consider a moratorium on new data centers to give the town more time to understand what is involved in shifting the facility’s operations.

Environmental nonprofit wants an impact study

The Seneca Lake Pure Waters Association, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting Seneca Lake, said it wants a study of the environmental impacts that a data center could have. Bill Roegge, board president of the association, said it’s not taking a simple “yes” or “no” position, but rather wants information on the electricity needs and whether the site, now run by Vulcan Infrastructure and Power, can support the project.

Roegge said the potential impacts of the new data center can vary depending on design, especially regarding cooling systems and low-frequency noise that could affect wildlife.

“They’re going to have to be upgraded in order to get the 60 megawatts, as well as additional transformers and other substation equipment, you know, at the plant, to get 200 megawatts more,” Roegge said. “This is one of the things that hopefully the state will look at: Is this or is not particularly a good area for electricity.”

Roegge said the facility is being built as a shell that can access the electrical grid before Vulcan leases it to another company, such as Microsoft or Google, to run the internal parts of the data center.

Roegge said he supports a moratorium but wants the town board to reassure neighbors they will not move forward without public input. News10NBC will continue to follow developments on this proposal.