Photo: Carol Lenfesty addresses council over a proposed data centre during the Nov. 10 council meeting. Screenshot

Concerns about municipal transparency, water supply, electricity demand and potential environmental impacts were raised during Hanna town council’s Nov. 10 meeting, where two residents addressed council about a proposed data centre. Approximately a dozen residents attended the meeting to hear the presentations and discussions surrounding the development.

Carol Lenfesty questioned municipal governance and sought clearer information about water use and airport compatibility. Opal Hendrickson raised concerns about electrical infrastructure, continuous industrial noise and fire protection.

The proposed GENIUSpark Hanna Campus No. 1 is a $24.3-million data centre planned near Highway 9 and Pioneer Trail by Genius Group, FingerMotion and BlueFlare. The companies have outlined an initial phase using three megawatts of grid electricity with an option to add natural gas generation. A Nov. 4 public open house at the Hanna Legion gave residents an opportunity to hear about the proposal and raise questions about its operation and potential effects on the community.

Lenfesty opened her presentation by explaining that residents had researched the proposal and gathered questions they wanted addressed publicly. She called for opportunities to clarify what was known about the development and what still required investigation.

She asked whether council would pause consideration of the project while the Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA) reviews the provincial regulatory framework for data centres.

Lenfesty also questioned whether Hanna would introduce bylaws to assess the combined effects of multiple development phases, including noise and power demand.

Public engagement was another focus. She questioned advice she said council had received from an outside body to refrain from attending community meetings, arguing that councillors have a responsibility to understand residents’ concerns.

She asked who had authorized private meetings between town representatives and project proponents and sought clarification about recent staffing changes, including the status of the chief administrative officer (CAO) and other long-serving employees. She also questioned whether residents were paying for multiple CAO positions.

Turning to water security, Lenfesty asked where the facility’s water would come from, how much it would consume and how future expansion could affect demand.

She referred to a figure of 1,500 litres mentioned at a community meeting at the Legion and sought more complete information about the project’s requirements. She questioned the proposed use of reverse osmosis and how the water-treatment system would operate at the Hanna location.

Lenfesty said residents needed access to detailed plans and consumption figures, particularly given recent drought conditions and potential competition for water among agriculture, municipalities and industry.

She also raised the proposed development’s proximity to Hanna’s airport. Referring to airport protection in the Municipal Development Plan, she asked whether radio-frequency interference or rising heat from the facility could affect aircraft operations.

Hendrickson raised concerns about the demands a continuously operating data centre could place on local electrical infrastructure.

She questioned who would pay for necessary upgrades and whether residents could face additional costs. Her presentation also sought answers about how the facility would obtain power during shortages and whether proposed on-site generation would draw on the town’s natural gas supply.

Questions raised during the wider discussion included how available substation capacity would be allocated and why a development described as having its own power supply would also require a connection to local electrical infrastructure.

Hendrickson’s noise concerns focused on cooling fans and generators operating around the clock. She questioned whether reducing fan speeds at night would be practical when servers require continuous cooling.

She also challenged comparisons between data centre cooling equipment and the systems used at a local hockey arena and raised concerns about the combined noise from future expansions.

Hendrickson expressed concern about possible effects of low-frequency sound and infrasound on residents and wildlife, including bees and bats. She called attention to the need to assess those concerns when considering the development.

Fire protection was another part of her presentation. She raised questions about electrical equipment, battery systems and the methods used to suppress fires in facilities containing sensitive electronics.

She also expressed concern about the potential health and environmental effects of fire-suppression chemicals, including substances she identified as PFAS, and their persistence in the environment.

In responding to the presentations, council members described the proposal as being at an early stage. They said the existing arrangement consisted of a letter of intent between a private landowner and a developer and described the situation as having no official project in place.

Council members said some details in public announcements had surprised them, including references to a three-megawatt power agreement. They indicated that they had no additional information on those details beyond what residents could access.

The mayor and council acknowledged the research residents had undertaken and said they welcomed accountability. They maintained that they were being open about the information available to them.

The mayor emphasized that council members also live in Hanna and have a personal interest in protecting the community’s future.

Council committed to gathering and reviewing the questions raised during the presentations and working together to provide answers.