No Salem Data Center opposes Verrus Project Gridline in Employment Zone

SALEM, OR –  No Salem Data Center, a community group opposing the Verrus Gridline Project, launches their campaign to inform citizens about the big tech harms created by the project, analyze proposed community benefits and reform the state policy in siting data centers.

Social media addiction, privacy violations, screen time and cognitive decline join water, power, noise, traffic, labor, environmental impacts and tax breaks as targets for compensation through a community benefit agreement with Verrus..

State law and outdated code allow billion-dollar projects to be approved by a city administrator without public input. Amending the 2006 city code for a modern data center is essential. It may not stop this project because of state law, but it will stop the next one. The group plans to educate the community about data center harms and pressure officials to amend the code to allow public input.

Verrus, an Alphabet spinoff, has never built a data center. Their unique design claims to mitigate some of the environmental harms and has been simulated by the National Laboratory of the Rockies.

Lyon Township, Michigan is also opposing Verrus Project Flex, a similar development. The Verrus application is on its fourth revision there, with the latest community benefit offer at $10 million for the city, parks and schools.

Networking with Lyon should help Salem get the best deal from Verrus. If the group can’t stop it, they will advocate to make Verrus pay for the harms they cause to the community.