The Amazon Web Services data center project in Falls Township, Bucks County is being fast-tracked by local and state authorities. Community members are upset.
By Jim Wylie, Pennsylvania Chapter Dirty Energy Team Leader/Membership Chair and Kip Cherry, Sierra Club New Jersey Chapter, Central Group Conservation Chair
What’s The Problem Here?
You’ll get 10 different answers when you ask 10 different people what the current issues are with this project. Here’s what I see.
Lack of Transparency
Despite the Amazon Innovation Campus project being announced by Governor Shapiro, zoning approval and construction starting in the summer of 2025, the first real community engagement was held in July of 2026.
The industrial site being developed by NorthPoint Development has a mix of warehouses (e.g. Urban Outfitters) and data center project proposals submitted to local and state agencies. It has been difficult for community members to parse out which proposals are specifically targeted for data center use. They all say “NorthPoint.”
The amount of expected electrical power needed (fuels, water consumption, number of backup generators and hours of operation) has all been somewhat vague with some phases of the project leveraging existing permits for the site.
Closest Residential Area Is In New Jersey
The unique geography of this former US Steel Mill site along the Delaware River means that some of the residential stakeholders are in the neighboring town of Bordentown, NJ. See the map below for the obvious relationship.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/ff9AC2UCtyJBYi5g6
Pennsylvania Incentives
Amazon is benefiting from a sales tax exemption on “key equipment” - presumably the computer systems that will fill the data centers. See this SpotlightPA article.
Amazon is utilizing the PA Permit Fast Track Program to expedite construction of its $20 billion AI and cloud computing campuses. This program coordinates multi-agency environmental and operational licenses for these sites to cut through red tape.
As a result, Phase 1 (existing building) of the Falls Township data center became operational in April, 2026 and Phase 2 (additional 9 buildings) is expected to incrementally start operating this year assuming the PA DEP air permits are approved on schedule.
Onsite Renewable Energy
A rooftop solar array on the data center itself would not put a dent in the estimated 400 MW of power needed for operation when the complex is complete. But a combination of rooftop solar and some big batteries could be used to cover, say, 10 minutes of a utility blackout. Perhaps enough time to get their diesel and gas generators up to speed.
How much of the power purchase agreement that Amazon has with Talen’s Susquehanna Nuclear Power Plant is targeted for the Falls Twp complex is unclear. There are 2 other Amazon data center projects in PA.
Community Grant Fund
This $20B data center project comes with a $100K “commitment” from Amazon to fund a program “designed to support local initiatives in Bucks County”. This has an uncomfortable feeling for some (me). Is this a “community bribe?” Were any local government officials involved in helping on this design? I hope not. Municipalities cannot compel developers to participate in such an agreement. Community Benefits Agreements will not protect communities from the impacts of data centers. (See this statement from Senator Katie Muth.)
There are other Amazon investments in workforce development.
Facts and Status
Here’s what we think the proposed data center in Falls Township will look like:
- Footprint: 10 buildings totaling 3 million sq feet
- Power Consumption: 400 - 500 MW (from Q&A session, have not seen in writing), but they are installing an estimated 1.1 GW of backup generators
- Primary Power Source: Grid electricity - PECO/PJM
- Power Source for Generators: Diesel (72 generators), Fracked Gas (280 generators) (WHYY)
- Renewable Power: indirectly, nothing on-site - Amazon has invested in 12 solar farms in PA (700 globally). Amazon has a 1.9 GW power purchase agreement with the Susquehanna Nuclear Power Plant in Luzerne County, but there are 3 Amazon data center locations in PA: Bucks County, Luzerne County, Schuylkill County.
- Cooling Tech: Air cooling. Direct intake of outside air for 94% of the year while using evaporative water cooling to cool the air on the 6% of days that are too hot to do direct air cooling.
- Water Consumption: 1.3 M gallons/year. (Amazon says, “less than one golf course”). Replenishment projects planned to return more water than they use.
- Peak Water Consumption: Not clear. The private industrial water utility along the Delaware River that services the Keystone Trade Center complex has been asked to provide capacity for 1.4 M gallons/day. But this system is separate from the residential water utility.
- Noise Pollution: Amazon claims they will not significantly add to the ambient noise of the existing industrial park.
- Air Quality: The 72 diesel generators are the maximum number that can be used to stay under the “minor source” ruling (25 tons NOx/VOC per year). So, they are adding 280 gas generators to cover the rest. The Air Quality Plan Approval Application for Phase 1 and 2 can be found on the DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) Southeast Regional Office Website.
Community
The attendees at the July 14 community meeting organized by the PA DEP with help from Pennsylvania Representative Prokopiak with speakers from Amazon, PECO, Morrisville Municipal Authority (water), Williams (gas), NorthPoint Development and the DEP did not seem to be very interested in the facts, statistics or promises of zero impact to the environment, utility rates or noise, although these were questioned by some. They were mostly upset by the perception of deals being done behind closed doors and not having any opportunity for public input more than a year after the project started.
And then there is the question of what this data center will be used for. Artificial Intelligence cloud computing, of course. Most people are skeptical of the potential impacts of AI on jobs, easy generation and distribution of misinformation, mental health, equitable access, etc. Even if the application says “data center” the public will ask - why are we rushing into this unknown world of AI? Local and state officials may not have an adequate answer to that question.
There were no township, county or state elected officials in attendance at the July 14 Community Meeting that I was aware of.
What’s Next?
The PA DEP announced a 30-day public comment period for submitting comments related to the air quality permit application running from July 18 to Aug 16. The public can send comments to: ra-epseroaqpubcom@pa.gov.
Sierra Club Southeastern Pennsylvania Group volunteers plan to work with Sierra Club New Jersey volunteers and other local stakeholders to craft a meaningful comment to the DEP related to this air quality permit application along with questions and recommended actions.
And we will try to support the concerned residents on both sides of the Delaware River that are unhappy with the way this process has unfolded.
Conclusion
While the Amazon and PECO representatives describe a state-of-the-art campus with minimal or even positive impacts to the environment and utility service and rates, and the industrial site chosen seems like a reasonable choice for a new data center, the public has read about and seen examples from across the country where data center developers have promised good things but delivered something very different. And the lack of transparency to date by the developer, Amazon and local and state governments have not helped their credibility.
We should not accept slide deck presentations and flashy banners as development commitments. Let us see the design plans and the contracts with electric and water utilities. We should see the studies from similar data center projects that use the same cooling and generator technology, and the contracts that offset the carbon emissions from zero-carbon sources. The glossy brochures do help us see the big picture, but the commitments in writing are more important.
Further Reading
Donald Trump Proposes Forcing Pennsylvanians to Pay Big Tech’s Utility Bill - Sierra Club PA Press Release July, 2025
Press of July 14, 2026 Community Meeting - 6abc, Bucks County Herald, Fox29, WHYY, LevittownNow
Data Centers: Even Worse Than You Think - Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter blog post by Karen Melton, June 27, 2026
Key Data Center Legislation Advancing in Pennsylvania - Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter blog post by Jen Quinn, June 27, 2026
Amazon's Secret Coal Plant in Northern Virginia - Sierra Club National article by Jeremy Fisher, May 26, 2026 - as well as a similar press release
WE WILL NOT PAY FOR BIG TECH’S POWER NEEDS - open letter, Dec 2025
Image courtesy of Delaware Riverkeeper Network
This blog was included as part of the August 2026 Sylvanian newsletter. Please click here to check out more articles from this edition!