Future Use

Introduction

RITC has submitted a Site Plan Application and a Full Environmental Assessment Form for the Riverview Innovation & Technology Campus at 3875 River Road to the Town of Tonawanda. The proposed facility will act as the anchor tenant attracting both business and academic users. The RITC campus is an ideal location for a data center. It is immediately adjacent to the National Grid distribution system, reducing any disruptions that would be caused by construction of new power line alignments. In addition, it uses little water, produces no disruptive noise, and will use dark sky compliant lighting. There are few, if any, redevelopment options that would create the number of jobs and tax revenues with this low an environmental footprint.

Data Centers are not a typical industrial use. Because these facilities are relatively new and different we have prepared this Frequently Asked Questions to help people understand what is being proposed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is RITC?

  • Riverview Innovation & Technology Campus, Inc., or RITC, is a local company formed to acquire, clean up, and redevelop the former Tonawanda Coke site. RITC has invested millions to eliminate hazards that were created by and abandoned by the former Tonawanda Coke Corporation. RITC is completing the cleanup and moving into the redevelopment phase to create jobs and tax revenues for the Town of Tonawanda.
  • An important fact is that neither RITC, nor anyone who operates RITC, OSC or its subcontractors, had any relationship to the former Tonawanda Coke Corporation. While RITC is cleaning up the site, no one involved had any part in causing the pollution that affected the site.

Where is this project located?

  • The project is located at 3875 River Road in the Town of Tonawanda. An industrial area, the site is zoned General Industrial and there are no homes near the property. The neighboring properties are electrical transmission lines, a former junk yard, a fly ash landfill, petroleum bulk storage tanks, and other industrial users.

What is a data center?

  • Data centers are large, centralized facilities that store and manage the data we all use every day. These are secure facilities that allow us to transact business, pay our bills, search the internet and communicate with each other.
  • Data Centers allow us to stream movies, conduct online banking, attend virtual meetings and classes, quickly find weather forecasts, use navigation in our vehicles, communicate on social media like Instagram, store data and family photographs, and access online healthcare services.
  • They are not data miners that are smaller, lower tech, and noisy facilities for one user.

Environmental

Data centers, unlike the site's former coke plant, do not produce significant air or water discharges. The rate of water use at the site for the data center is approximately the same amount of water that flows through a garden hose; a little over 5 gallons per minute. For comparison, the former Tonawanda Coke Plant was permitted to withdraw up to 12,000 gallons per minute (17 million gallons per day) from the Niagara River. This facility will have a water line supplied from the Town. There are no emission sources because this facility will not use backup generators that some facilities require. Every aspect of this project – water, air, noise, and lighting – will be subject to detailed review and approval through the New York State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) process.

What are the environmental impacts being considered?

  • Water use
  • Noise
  • Traffic
  • Light pollution

Who evaluates/regulates environmental impacts?

  • Environmental impacts are evaluated through the SEQR process by the Town of Tonawanda, Erie County, and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC).

Who will enforce compliance of environmental regulations?

  • The NYSDEC and the USEPA. Like any industry, compliance with occupational and environmental regulations is closely regulated and monitored.

What types of businesses are allowed in this zoning and does this project require special zoning amendments?

  • The site is zoned General Industrial (GI). This zoning is for heavy and light industrial facilities. Data centers are an approved use under the current zoning, so no special zoning amendments are required.

Water Use

All water and associated sewerage will be purchased from the existing Town water and sewer lines. The lines currently supply a higher volume of water and sewer flow from the site. There are few industries that would employ this number of staff that would consume less water.

What ways will water be used?

  • Closed loop cooling – approximately 8,000 gallons per day or 5.5 gallons per minute. A typical garden hose discharges 5 gallons per minute.
  • Employees – Because the facility will have shower and locker facilities to encourage bicycle commuting, the consumption is estimated to be 30 gallons per day per employee. With 200 employees, this is approximately 6,000 gallons per day.

What design features are being implemented to minimize water consumption?

  • Closed loop cooling dramatically reduces the amount of water used.

How does this water consumption compare to what was used on this site previously?

  • The consumption of the cooling system is approximately 0.2 percent of the consumption of former Tonawanda Coke.
  • Former Tonawanda Coke had a similar number of employees and shower facilities because of the dirty work environment, not because they rode bicycles. Therefore they likely used a similar amount of water for employees.

How does this water consumption compare with other industries in the area?

  • The Town of Tonawanda is planning a $31 million project to supply industrial users from the former Huntley intakes. That investment is not required for the proposed data center. There are limited improvements required for the data center and they will be funded by the redevelopment.

What other industries have a similar water consumption?

  • There are few industries that support 200 employees that consume such a low amount of water. For example, a car wash uses 100,000 gallons per day.

Noise

The facility is very quiet and is isolated from any residential areas. At the property line the noise levels will be below 65dBA which is similar to the volume of a speaking voice.

How will noise impacts be studied?

  • Noise impacts are studied in several phases. First the existing ambient noise is measured by placing sensors around the property at locations representative of the people who are living closest to the facility. Next a model is prepared to model the noise from each sound source at the proposed facility to show the magnitude of noise emanating to the property line. Finally, if there is a potential to exceed any noise requirements at any point along the property line, the model is used to design sound mitigation to reduce the sound from the facility.

How will the noise impacts be reviewed and approved?

  • There will be multiple reviews during the SEQR process: (1) the work plan which is the technical document describing the equipment and modeling software to be used, (2) the results of the ambient sound data collection task and the modeling of the sound, and (3) finally the proposed mitigation measures.

How does this project's proposed noise production compare to those facilities used for cryptomining?

  • The sound levels from a data center are far less than from a cryptominer. Data centers use much more advanced cooling systems that eliminate the baffles and fans that circulate air around cryptominers.

Light Pollution

The only lighting that will be visible from the facility will be light required for safety and security.

Will this project produce a significant amount of light pollution?

  • The lighting on the building and along the site roadways will be dark sky compliant, which means the lighting fixtures are specifically designed to light the ground below but not cause fugitive light to leave the site or obstruct the ability to view the night sky.

How will the lighting plan be reviewed and approved?

  • The lighting plan is a requirement of the Site Plan approval process. The lighting plan will be reviewed and approved by the Town of Tonawanda.

Power and Impact on Local Rate Payers

The data center will consume a considerable amount of power. The power consumption will be a sustained load, and the developers will bear the costs of any necessary transmission upgrades and for the power to assure there are no associated rate increases passed along to other customers. This will in fact be positive, not an adverse impact, as the grid in this area requires upgrades that would otherwise be funded by the current rate base.

In fact, the purchase of the power will provide National Grid with a large customer and consistent revenue stream to help pay for other system upgrades that will be required with or without this development. Furthermore, the power in this area of the grid is 91% renewable and emission free, and more than half of it is generated locally at the Lewiston Hydro-Generating facility.

Data Center projects often require significant structural upgrades to the existing power grid. How will this project affect my electric bill?

  • The data center will pay for upgrades required to supply the power to the site.
  • Unfortunately, we do not know if the grid in New York requires upgrades to meet the growing demand associated with electrification of new and existing buildings. Those rate increases are independent of the data center.
  • The purchase of the power will provide National Grid with a large customer and consistent revenue stream to help pay for other system upgrades that will be required with or without this development, upgrades required because of the age of the grid in New York.
  • Bottom line, rates may go up, but the data center will share in the costs and as a result should help keep the increases down.

What adverse effects will there be on the power grid?

  • None, the project will have a positive impact on the grid. The power grid in New York is aging, and the grid operator and power companies have proposed numerous significant rate increases to construct the required upgrades to meet the current and growing power demand. The cost of those upgrades would be shared by all rate payers.
  • The process to connect to the electrical grid involves several detailed studies by the New York Independent System Operator (the people who run the statewide grid) and National Grid (the local utility provider). Those studies first determine if there is enough power available and then identify the required upgrades to transmit the power to the site.
  • In most cases, the upgrades required are also upgrades that would be passed onto the ratepayers. Instead of affecting all ratepayers, the cost would go to the project.

Where will the power come from?

  • The power will come from the transmission lines immediately adjacent to the site. No new power lines will be run other than the line from the towers to the site on property owned by National Grid and RITC.

Is any of this power renewable and what emissions come from this power?

  • The power in this area of the grid is 91% renewable and emission free, and more than half of it is generated locally at the Lewiston Hydro-Generating facility.

Investment in the Town of Tonawanda

The proposed development would be the single largest private development in Western New York in decades, larger than Tesla or the Buffalo Bills stadium and without the massive State and County subsidies those projects demanded. In fact, the development will invest in the local energy grid to privately fund any required upgrades, protecting rate payers from funding capital improvements required in that area of the Town.

To date, RITC has committed to complete the cleanup of the former coke plant that was not only a significant threat to human health and the environment, but an eyesore visible from nearly every direction. Over $80 million has been expended to date, with approximately $40 million remaining to finish.

How will this project benefit residents of the Town of Tonawanda?

  • First and foremost, it is the final step to erase the legacy of former Tonawanda Coke. RITC is completing the cleanup, and this would replace the jobs and tax revenues lost with a clean, quiet facility.
  • The facility will bring hyperscale computing to Tonawanda, with the potential to attract additional employers who rely on data to the area.

Will this generate tax revenue for the Town, County and School District?

  • Yes, this facility is a multi-billion-dollar investment in the community and will pay its fair share of taxes for use by the County, Town and School District.

Jobs for Western NY

Reportedly, the bankruptcy of former Tonawanda Coke left more than 200 staff without jobs. The proposed data center is expected to replace those jobs with opportunities ranging from security and maintenance to high-tech professional positions. Direct payroll for the facility will exceed $12 million per year and the expected indirect payroll is six to eight times the direct payroll, or an additional $72 million to $96 million per year.

RITC has entered into an Project Labor Agreement with the local building trades who predict construction of the facility will employ 1,000 to 1,500 union workers. While over a typical construction duration, it represents more than $250 million in payroll directly to the Western New York workforce.

What temporary jobs will be created with the construction of this project?

  • The concept that construction jobs are "temporary" is a bit of a misnomer. Construction jobs are high-paying, fulfilling jobs that require movement from site to site as workers accomplish their objectives for one project and move to the next. They are not temporary; they simply move from project to project throughout their careers.
  • RITC has entered into an Project Labor Agreement with the local building trades who predict construction of the facility will employ 1,000 to 1,500 union workers. While over a typical construction duration, it represents more than $250 million in payroll directly to the Western New York workforce.

What permanent jobs will be created with the ongoing operations of this project?

  • The proposed data center is expected to replace those jobs with opportunities ranging from security and maintenance staff to high-tech professional positions. Direct payroll for the data center will exceed $12 million per year.
  • The larger opportunity is the fact these facilities encourage development and create six to eight times the number of onsite jobs for the surrounding community. The expected payroll for the additional jobs created is estimated to be an additional $72 million to $96 million per year.

What is the site history?

  • The site proposed for the data center was a coke making facility for more than 100 years. The operators of the former Tonawanda Coke facility had an egregious environmental compliance track record, and the conditions discovered and remediated by RITC were among the worst encountered by its experts who had worked on cleanup projects at 24 coke making facilities around the world. Due to continual violations, and thanks to pressure from the community, the facility filed for bankruptcy in 2018 and walked away from the environmental harm they created.
  • RITC acquired the facility through the Bankruptcy Court and as a volunteer, entered the Brownfield Cleanup Program, which is the regulatory program allowing the cleanup to occur effectively and efficiently.