Statement from Pete Zeliff, WNY STAMP Committee Chairman at GCEDC:
“The Genesee County Economic Development Center (GCEDC) STAMP Committee unanimously approved a motion at our March 5, 2025 meeting recommending the GCEDC Board approve both a SEQR resolution and final resolution from STREAM US Data Centers, LLC to build a new data center at STAMP.
“The decision to make this recommendation was after a thorough review of public comments from the public hearings held in the town of Alabama on February 3, 2025 as well as extensive analysis by the STAMP Committee, GCEDC staff and members from the STAMP technical team which is comprised of legal, engineering and environmental professionals.
“In making this recommendation to the GCEDC board, the STAMP Committee followed a deliberative process as we always do. We reviewed the three data center projects’ final and best offer, after which an initial resolution was adopted to schedule a public hearing for comments specific to each project. After the public hearing, we reviewed the public comments and responses to each relevant comment, which were elaborated upon in the staff and technical team reports.
“In assessing each project, we considered several factors, including the number of good-paying jobs that would be created, the footprint of the project, including electric and water needs and impacts on the local community.
“We also assessed which project would have the least impact on the STAMP’s capacity to bring advanced manufacturing and semiconductor supply chain companies that we are targeting for STAMP and the subsequent jobs and capital investment.
“The STAMP Committee concluded that the project proposed by STREAM US Data Centers, LLC had the fewest impacts, particularly from an environmental standpoint, and provided the best overall fit at the STAMP site.
Statement from a group calling itself Allies of Tonawanda Seneca Nation:
GCEDC Board of Directors Votes Today on Approvals for Project Double Reed and Accompanying SEQR Resolution Despite Strong Regional Opposition
Residents of Western New York are expressing concern over the Genesee Economic Development Center (GCEDC) Board of Directors' plan to vote on resolutions approving the data center codenamed Project Double Reed and an accompanying State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) resolution at their 4pm meeting this afternoon. The GCEDC STAMP Committee voted yesterday to approve the staff’s recommendation in favor of Project Double Reed and also instructed the staff to prepare the accompanying SEQR resolution. Announcement of the votes and publication of the accompanying documents did not appear on GCEDC’s website until mid-afternoon yesterday.
Today’s votes are taking place despite strong and ongoing public opposition to GCEDC’s efforts to site a data center at STAMP. Despite GCEDC’s efforts to minimize public participation in a rushed approval process, GCEDC received 618 comments during a poorly publicized 10-day public comment period. At the February 3 public hearings, scheduled during a Monday afternoon, dozens of speakers voiced concerns about environmental harms, quality of life issues, impacts to the Tonawanda Seneca Nation, misallocation of taxpayer dollars and misuse of low cost hydropower, as well the agency’s repeated refusal to answer basic questions about the project applicants. Since the official comment period ended, GCEDC has received more than 702 comments in opposition, including 323 opposing the approval of Project Double Reed since Monday, March 3.
GCEDC has also refused repeated requests from the Tonawanda Seneca Nation Council of Chiefs for a new set of hearings, even though the February 3 hearings were held during the Nation’s Midwinter Ceremonies. The Nation has raised extensive concerns about the SEQR environmental review process, for which GCEDC is acting as lead agency. GCEDC has dismissed those concerns in a SEQR resolution, which finds that Project Double Reed will not have a significant adverse impact upon public health that was not analyzed in the original 2012 STAMP Environmental Impact Statement. The Nation has consistently criticized this document as profoundly inadequate and out of date.
Among the three data centers currently under consideration for the WNY Science and Technology Advanced Manufacturing Park (STAMP) mega industrial site, Double Reed has requested the largest amount in tax breaks - $472 million in combined sales and mortgage tax exemptions. Double Reed is projected to produce 122 jobs, for a per job subsidy of $3.9 million. According to the GCEDC staff report, these subsidies would potentially be directed to a Fortune 50 company worth $100,000,000,000.
Backed by STREAM U.S. Data Centers, Double Reed will use 250 megawatts of electricity per year - significantly more than either competitor. This electricity would be drawn primarily from low-cost Niagara River hydropower, which the New York Power Authority (NYPA) allocates to STAMP even though the site lies outside the designated radius for this subsidy. In addition, Double Reed would have the potential to burn over 20,000 gallons of diesel fuel per day.
According to their report, GCEDC staff chose Double Reed despite its high energy usage and requested tax breaks because the other two applications lack credibility and would have faced significant challenges and delays in obtaining permits. However, the staff also acknowledges that Double Reed lacks a firm commitment from a tenant, meaning it is not known what company would locate there, when, or what its operations might entail.
Despite 15 years of effort and more than $410 million in taxpayer subsidies, GCEDC has struggled to attract viable tenants or construct basic infrastructure at the rural site proposed to become a “mega industrial park.” The agency pivoted to data centers to fill a gap in financing for the onsite electrical substation following the withdrawal of funding from Plug Power, which paused construction on its green hydrogen manufacturing facility in 2023. Each of the three data center applicants pledged contributions toward completion of the substation; Double Reed would pay $50 million. Its requested $3.9 million per job approaches the $4.3 million per job allocated to Plug Power. Edwards Vacuum is the only tenant under construction at STAMP.
GCEDC has not filed a new permit application for the proposed “Big Water” pipeline that would bring 6 million gallons of water daily to the site from the Niagara River, raising questions about the source of Double Reed’s proposed 10,000 gallons of water per day. The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation Region 8 Office rejected GCEDC’s previous application as incomplete in August 2024. GCEDC recently filed a Basis of Design Report for a reroute of the Wastewater Treatment Pipeline that would pump raw sewage from STAMP uphill and under multiple waterways to the Oakfield Wastewater Treatment Facility; treated wastewater would be discharged into a tributary of Oak Orchard Creek. Construction of the original pipeline was halted in September 2023 following fracouts of 500-700 gallons of hydraulic drilling fluid into the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge.
‘Data center’ is a generic term that can refer to operations ranging from cryptocurrency mining to Artificial Intelligence processing. Data centers create minimal jobs, use massive amounts of water and energy, and face opposition from other WNY communities concerned about their noxious public health and environmental impacts. The proposed data center would be sited on a parcel of land characterized by wetlands and located immediately adjacent to the Reservation Territory of the Tonawanda Seneca Nation, whose Council of Chiefs opposes STAMP.
“We are confident that STREAM US Data Centers, LLC will provide all the taxing jurisdictions with significant financial benefits making it a transformative project for our region while further enhancing economic development opportunities at STAMP.”
