By Staff Reporter
AKWESASNE — At opposite ends of New York, two Haudenosaunee nations are making the same argument to the towns and agencies next door: a hyperscale data center should not be built on the edge of their territory without them.
On the St. Lawrence River, the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe has formally opposed a proposed 635-megawatt data center at the former Alcoa East site in Massena, near the southern portion of Akwesasne. In Genesee County, the Tonawanda Seneca Nation is in state court trying to undo the zoning deal behind the STAMP industrial park, where a developer wants to build a 2.2 million-square-foot data center beside the Nation’s territory.
Both fights are moving.
Massena hires lawyers for the data center review
The Massena Town Council’s agenda for its Wednesday meeting included a resolution authorizing Supervisor Ray Lancto to sign an engagement letter with the law firm Hancock Estabrook “pertaining to NYDIG Development,” to provide legal counsel “related to any applications submitted for the location of any data center.” The agenda lists the firm’s fees at $400 an hour for partners and $300 for associates. The outcome of the vote had not been posted by early Thursday.
The developer, New York Digital Investment Group, and its affiliate North Country Collocation Services want to build a 1.5 million-square-foot, 635-megawatt facility, according to North Country Public Radio. That would equal about 70 percent of the power produced at the Moses-Saunders hydroelectric dam nearby. The company says it would create 200 full-time jobs and use a sealed cooling loop that draws no local water.
Earlier, the town board voted 3-2 against a six-month local moratorium, with Mr. Lancto and board member Kristy Baker Dubrey in the minority.
The Tribal Council answered on Oct. 2 with Resolution 2026-41, opposing hyperscale data centers on or near the southern portion of the territory. The council cited energy consumption, water use, air quality, and noise and light pollution, as well as risks to the community’s economy and cultural resources.
“We believe that hyperscale data center development poses known and unknown risks that could impact the health and well-being of our community. There is currently no support from our community for hyperscale data center development,” the Tribal Council said. “We met with Town of Massena representatives and sincerely hoped that the Town would not issue authorization for the continued growth of data centers in our area.”
Akwesasne’s caution is earned. As NCPR noted, the community has a long history of industrial giants including Alcoa, General Motors and Reynolds polluting the land and water around the site. At a protest in Massena, lifelong resident Neddie Thompson told NCPR why she wants the town to slow down.
“I grew up right on that river right next to that GM plant. We didn’t know nothing about what’s going on,” Ms. Thompson said. “We’ve got to get the facts on what this data center is, the noise pollution, the contamination of our water.”
A moratorium with a gap
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Executive Order 62, signed July 14, directs the state Department of Environmental Conservation to hold in abeyance discretionary permits for data centers of 50 megawatts or more while the Public Service Department completes a statewide environmental study. Local permits are not covered.
That leaves room for Massena’s project. Town officials told NCPR the developer applied for its permits in 2020, and the company argues it won’t need new state approvals that would trigger the pause.
“If they don’t need a state permit, then the moratorium wouldn’t be applicable,” Jason Pfotenhauer, director of the St. Lawrence County Planning Office, told the station. State officials have not said publicly whether the project is covered.
The Tribal Council has asked for a seat at the table. “In light of Governor Kathy Hochul’s state moratorium on data centers, we see an opportunity for meaningful consultation between state officials and the Tribe on issues that directly impact our land, waters, air quality, and the wellbeing of our people,” the council said.
At Tonawanda, a lawsuit and a delay
Across the state, the Tonawanda Seneca Nation, the Sierra Club and Alabama resident Leann Mullen sued in July in state Supreme Court in Genesee County. They argue the 2012 “incentive zoning agreement” between the Town of Alabama and the Genesee County Economic Development Center illegally signed away the town’s power to rezone the 1,250-acre STAMP site.
The town’s response was due Oct. 16, The Batavian reported. Supervisor Rob Crossen told his board the developer, Stream U.S. Data Centers, had asked the town to put off its schedule, and the planning board’s deadline to act was pushed to about Dec. 10.
Stream has asked the economic development agency for state and local sales tax breaks totaling $1.46 billion, Investigative Post reported. In March, Ms. Hochul had called the project a local decision she wouldn’t override.
The state has already put the Nation’s concerns on the record. In a July letter quoted by Investigative Post, DEC attorney Dudley Loew asked the agency to study how “continuous and persistent low-frequency noises from the data center might affect the Nation’s territory and members.”
“This moratorium is an appropriate response to our community’s serious concerns about hyperscale data centers and the impacts they will cause on our neighborhoods, our way of life and cost of living, and our environment,” Sarah Howard, who heads the group Allies of the Tonawanda Seneca Nation, said when the executive order was signed.
What would help
The two nations face the same gap. A state pause that covers only DEC permits can leave a project moving forward through local approvals and older applications, and the nearest neighbors, sovereign governments with land, water and treaty rights at stake, end up arguing their case at town board microphones and in state court.
The fixes are not complicated. The state could say plainly whether the Massena project is covered by its own order. It could build formal tribal consultation into the statewide environmental study now underway, as the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe has requested. And towns hiring outside counsel to review data center applications could invite the nations next door into that review from the start, rather than after the votes are taken.
The Buffalo Chronicle is asking the Town of Massena, the governor’s office and the Tonawanda Seneca Nation for comment.
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