Update on STAMP Data Center
Diane Ciurczak, Vice Chair, Sierra Club Niagara
In late December 2025 STREAM U.S. DATA CENTERS applied for NY State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) environmental impact approval of a massive 500 megawatt, 2.2 million square foot, 100+ foot tall data center complex for the STAMP site run by the Genesee County Development Center (GCEDC). STREAM is now majority owned by Apollo Funds, a multibillion-dollar investment company. GCEDC appears poised to approve the project called Project Double Reed without additional adequate environmental review.
On February 4, GCEDC announced that STREAM was requesting an incentive package that would give STREAM $801 million in tax incentives. The completed data center will create only 125 permanent jobs, mostly maintenance and security. That works out to $6.4 million per job and the largest tax incentive ever given in NYS. The communities nearby, including the Tonawanda Seneca Nation, would be forced to sacrifice their community’s tranquility and environmental quality to host the billionaires’ multibillion-dollar project. Neither STREAM nor Apollo would run the data center, and officials at GCEDC will not disclose the prospective tenant because they have signed a non-disclosure agreement to keep it secret.
Although the information provided by STREAM has been vague and inconsistent, in general the 90-acre development would include three massive buildings filled with noisy computers/servers and the noisy equipment needed to keep them cool and running 24/7. The required power of 500 megawatts is one fifth of the power that can be generated by the Robert Moses Power plant in Niagara Falls and enough to power all the residences in Erie County. It will likely raise electricity rates and strain the electrical grid across the WNY region, as has been the case in other areas that host data centers.
The project will require 20,000 gallons of freshwater each day via a new pipeline to be built from Monroe County or other parts of Genesee County. Sewage of about 20,000 gallons a day would be temporarily trucked daily from holding tanks to a sewage treatment facility several miles away in Oakfield for treatment and then discharged into a tributary of Oak Orchard Creek. Eventually there would be a sewer line built to pump sanitary sewage up grade to the facility. STREAM says that there will be a closed loop system to cool the facility, which we have learned is the case in most data centers, but that coolant itself needs to be cooled, and the plans are not clear on how that will happen. The coolants contain toxic materials and need to be cleaned periodically. Also, an official of STREAM has admitted to one of our members that the plans contain no redundancy plan to back-up 100% of the power needs of the facility in a power failure, which is generally required by the kind of tenant they plan to locate there. Since the proposed 12 diesel backup generators would be insufficient, and both the substations to be built are necessary to run the facility, the lack of a redundancy plan raises questions about how that need will be met, and what effect that will have on the environment.
The Sierra Club Niagara Group and the Atlantic Chapter joined the Tonawanda Seneca Nation, the WNY Environmental Alliance and many other organizations, including the editorial board of the Buffalo News, in calling on the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to act as lead agency in the SEQRA review. Although the DEC declined to act as lead agency, it did send a lengthy letter to GCEDC recommending that GCEDC conduct a complete new SEQRA review and highlighted inconsistencies in the plans, such as why so much water would be necessary if the articulated need is only for 125 full-time employees who would use about a tenth of the 20,000 gallons proposed. The agency also recommended that GCEDC comply with the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) and the Environmental Justice Siting Act in its deliberation.
The Niagara Group continues to work with its partners in the fight to stop the building of this data center. We also used the legal services of Citizens Environmental Law, PCC and the expertise of Noise Pollution Clearinghouse to appeal to DEC to act as lead agency. We have also identified an organization that is assisting us to evaluate other technical issues in this hyperscale data center proposal. All these resources are also preparing us to submit expert opinions to GCEDC and to litigate if necessary.
We continue to need your support and financial contributions! Please reach out to help if you can! Contact us at niagarasierra@gmail.com.