Protesters rally against Meta data centre in Sturgeon County
Protesters are questioning the environmental costs of large-scale data centres as Meta moves ahead with its major Sturgeon County development.
Protesters gather in front of the Sturgeon County Centre on Sept. 20 Photo credit: Samara Murray
A small group of protesters gathered at the Sturgeon County Centre in Morinville Sept. 20 to raise concerns about artificial intelligence, data centres and the environmental impact of Meta’s data centre under construction in Sturgeon County.
Twenty-three people attended the protest, including four children.
Meta’s planned data centre campus will span approximately 270,000 square metres and have a power capacity of up to one gigawatt.
Around 10 a.m., cars began arriving at the centre parking lot, with people gathering along Champlain Street, holding homemade signs and banners.
Melissa Waddell, a former St. Albert hospital employee, said she opposes data-centre development despite not living in Sturgeon County.
“If we can show enough resistance as a community and as a people that we do not want this, then we can start getting the government to realize that this is not as easy as [they] thought it was going to be,” Waddell said.
Audio: Melissa Waddell, a former St. Albert hospital employee, explains why she joined the Sept. 20 protest against Meta’s data centre development in Sturgeon County.
Meta says the Sturgeon County facility will use a water-efficient, closed-loop liquid cooling system with dry cooling, meaning the cooling system will use no water during operations. The company says water use at the site will be limited to domestic use, fire protection and equipment maintenance.
Sherry Heschuk is a co-chair of The Council of Canadians, an independent, non-partisan advocacy group. Heschuk raised concerns about the potential effect of data centres on groundwater.
“The groundwater is connected to our aquifers, and we’re losing the ability to support our aquifers if they’re contaminated,” Heschuk said.
Aquifers are underground layers of water-bearing sediment like rock, sand, and gravel.
Heschuk said she wants people to consider the broader environmental effects of data centres.
“It’s important for us to give some information out to people who are concerned about AI data centres and their impacts,” Heschuk said.
“We’re hoping people will understand [that] without protection of our habitats, for wildlife [and] for biodiversity, we will probably lose a lot of the ability to cool the areas around here, as well as store water.”
According to Sturgeon County’s website, data-centre projects must undergo multiple levels of regulatory review before proceeding.
The county says it monitors construction and operations for compliance and lists minimizing water use and community impacts among its guiding principles for data-centre development.
Ben Baril, a business student at the University of Alberta, calls AI “anti-human infrastructure.” He had organized a previous anti-AI protest on Aug. 2.
“It’s an existential threat to all of us,” Baril said. “No matter our geographic region, our age group, our background.”
The organizer of the Sept. 20 gathering was not immediately clear to those attending, as the organizer was not present.
