(Editor's note: This is just one part of a series of stories about local candidates in the upcoming June 2 primary, municipal and school board election. Find more coverage here.)
Simplified: Data centers have been a hot topic in Sioux Falls and statewide as local leaders decide how these facilities might fit into zoning designations, qualify for economic incentives and more. Sioux Falls Simplified asked each candidate how they'd approach decisions about data centers in the city.
Here's (approximately) what we asked:
Let's talk about data centers. How would you manage the tension between welcoming growth/new businesses to Sioux Falls with the concerns of residents about water usage, electricity rates and more?
Here's what candidates said (in alphabetical order):
Zach DeBoer
DeBoer said one of his main concerns with data centers is water usage and protecting our limited natural resources. At the same time, data centers feel "inevitable," and "we don't want to fall behind technologically."
"The benefits, at least directly, from a single data center or a single large water use thing like that – you may not feel, yourself, the same way you may not notice the negative benefits," DeBoer said. "But it's a really hard line to walk. I do think too often that the sustainability and the ecological impacts of things are like eighth on the list for a lot of leaders, and so that is something I'm passionate about."
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Tommy Kunz
Kunz said he wants to see restrictions and water usage and make sure utilities aren't going up, and he said he'd also like to see restrictions on AI because of the natural resources it uses vs. the benefits it brings.
He also said he wants to see more public input when it comes to data center decisions.
"It's a big issue," Kunz said. "A lot of people are against it, and, we're especially seeing the City Council not listen to the public when we have concerns. And they're just like, oh, you know, let's go ahead with it."
Matthew McKinley
McKinley did not respond to multiple calls and emails requesting an interview.
Zak Okuwe
Okuwe said he's also as concerned about water and rising energy bills as anybody.
"But I think as a state, we have to increase our capacity for data storage," Okuwe said. "We do live in a digital world, and data centers are the digital backbone of the digital world. And we're kind of behind right now. If there's a way that it can be done and in an environmentally friendly way, I think we should do that, and there's a lot more study that needs to be done before we build anything. The data center itself doesn't bring a lot of jobs, but when companies do want to move to Sioux Falls, they're looking at how much data storage we have, and that can bring a lot of jobs if they do choose to move here."
Bob Trzynka
Trzynka said the city needs to be proactive when it comes to data centers. There's a temptation, he notes, to say we don't want them here ever, but in the long term, he doesn't think that's a feasible approach.
"In order to add that data driven economy, we have to have centers, or data centers to process it ... But that being said, we have to be smart about it," he said. "We can't just give a data center a blank check to come in. We have to be good stewards about the environment and of the resources that are finite for our existing citizens."
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