The Sierra Club Delta Chapter will host a public town hall meeting Monday, November 17, at 6PM at Johnny’s Pizza House, 1924 Julia Street in Rayville, to discuss the proposed Meta data center in Holly Ridge and its potential effects on the community and surrounding areas.
According to Chapter Chair Dr. Angelle Bradford Rosenberg, the meeting will include local experts and representatives from community, worker, and environmental organizations. Topics will include the experiences of other communities in states such as Virginia, Georgia, and Tennessee, where data centers have been built, as well as local concerns about air quality, electricity, water use, and job impacts.
“Our coalition has been monitoring statements and press releases about the new facility since the announcement of the facility last year,” Rosenberg said. “We want to bring members of the community, interested groups, and elected officials together to discuss it further before the state-sponsored air permits meeting.”
The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality is scheduled to hold a meeting in Rayville on Tuesday regarding air permits for Entergy Louisiana’s Franklin Farms Power Station. The gas-powered facility is part of a plan to construct three stations to meet the electricity demand of the Meta complex.
Organizers note that Meta’s data center near Atlanta, roughly 2.5 million square feet in size, consumes about 500,000 gallons of water per day — about 10 percent of its county’s daily use, according to The New York Times. The proposed Richland Parish facility is expected to be about 4 million square feet, or roughly the size of 70 football fields.
Margie Vicknair-Pray, conservation coordinator for the Sierra Club Delta Chapter, said the group hopes to encourage dialogue on how the project could affect local residents and resources.
“Meta has made significant commitments to green energy elsewhere,” she said. “We want that kind of commitment from Zuckerberg in Louisiana.”
The Sierra Club Delta Chapter, the Louisiana branch of the nation’s oldest grassroots environmental organization, is volunteer-led with groups across the state. More information about the event is available at sierraclub.org/louisiana.
For more details, contact Rosenberg at [email protected] or Vicknair-Pray at [email protected].
