9.27.23 East Lyme and Waterford residents join to discuss data center concerns

East Lyme and Waterford residents join to discuss data center
concerns
September 27, 2023 7:08 pm • Last Updated: September 27, 2023
8:27 pm
By Daniel Drainville Day Staff Writer
d.drainville@theday.com
Waterford ― For the first time, East Lyme residents joined the
Concerned Citizens of Waterford at the group’s Tuesday night
meeting to share their own concerns about a proposed data center
on the Millstone Power Site.
“They would be affected too,” meeting organizer Bryan Sayles said
Tuesday about the East Lyme residents.
The Concerned Citizens of Waterford formed Aug. 15, with the goal
of collecting information about data centers and their impact on
communities.
That meeting came about five months after First Selectman Rob
Brule signed a host fee agreement with data center developer NE
Edge. That agreement, signed on March 17, signaled the town was
open to hosting a data center.
Per the agreement, NE Edge would pay the town $231 million over
a 30-year period to construct two two-story data center buildings
that would provide around 1.5 million square feet of storage for
cloud and data centers.
The data center would be supplied with energy from Millstone.
East Lyme is directly adjacent to the Millstone Property, across
Niantic Bay. Tuesday’s meeting was attended by six East Lyme
residents, who realized that noise from the data center might also
reach them and questioned whether they should start their own
opposition.

Sayles said they should reach out to their town government and
sign petitions like the Waterford group has done. The Concerned
Citizens of Waterford has collected signatures from residents on two
petitions.
The first asks that Brule conduct a public information meeting on
the project that could accommodate a large crowd.
The second states residents feel they have sufficient information to
oppose the data center, Sayles said.
Sayles suggested East Lyme residents draft a similar petition.
RTM to discuss data center next week
The agenda for Monday’s Representative Town Meeting calls for an
update on the data center status. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in
Town Hall.
“I’m not sure what to expect with the RTM meeting,” Sayles said
Wednesday. “There’s going to be updates from the developer I
suppose. I’m not sure if there’s going to be the ability to ask any
questions.”
“I know at the Board of Selectman meeting, you could give a
comment but you couldn’t give anything that would incite a back-
and-forth,” Sayles said.
RTM Moderator Paul Goldstein could not be reached for comment.
At that selectmen’s meeting, Sayles explained the public was told
there would be no back and forth commentary between residents
and selectman about the data center. The selectmen listened to
comments but they did not answer questions.
Sayles added that he’s unsure if an RTM meeting would be the
proper venue for residents’ concerns about the data center to be
properly addressed while a townwide meeting would give them the
ability to “have their questions answered truthfully and let them
know how the town feels.”

“Face the people you govern and listen to what they have to say,”
Sayles said.
d.drainville@theday.com