Wisconsin Residents Sue Microsoft Over Noise and Light from $7.3 Billion AI Data Center

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Residents near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, file class-action lawsuit against Microsoft over “excessive noise” from its Fairwater AI data center

Complainants also report light pollution from the facility

Microsoft says it has taken “immediate steps to address the sound concerns”

While it is an inherently useful technology, AI comes with many challenges, not least the impact of data centers on the landscape and local environment. Microsoft’s new $7.3 billion AI data center in Milwaukee is demonstrating some of those challenges, having amassed complaints during construction and now a class-action lawsuit from Wisconsin residents.

Residents of Sturtevant, near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, are situated just 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the Mount Pleasant “Fairwater 1” datacenter, which came online in April. Following noise during construction, the installation itself has since been blamed for “not only excessive, but consistent and pervasive” noise.

Over 1,000 homes in the Mount Pleasant area are affected, and these are represented by three citizens who filed the lawsuit.

How noisy is Microsoft’s Fairwater 1 data center?

According to the filing, “Through its operation and maintenance of the Data Center, Defendant has emitted, and continues to emit, unreasonable and excessive noise onto Plaintiffs’ properties, thereby causing property damages through private nuisance and negligence.”

While no formal test results have been published, one resident stated in the lawsuit “It sounded similar to the whirring engine of a freight train parked nearby. We heard it 24 hours a day, and eventually realized it was coming from the Microsoft campus.” This followed a period of six months when previous issues concerning noise and dust had subsided.

Meanwhile, a resident told Wisconsin Public Radio that light pollution is a problem, noting "“It was so dark out there, you could see all the stars, and now you have a hard time seeing the stars with all the light.”

The filing (reported by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ) notes that the Fairwater 1 data center "generates significant noise pollution from diesel generators and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, including chillers, cooling towers, air-handling units, and condenser fans."

Microsoft is yet to respond

As the demand for cloud AI increases, more installations like Fairwater 1 (up to 15 Microsoft data centers are planned for the location) need to be developed.

So far, Microsoft has responded to the previous complaints about noise and dust with street cleaners, but these concerns have made it into the filing, along with accusations that Microsoft failed to "implement adequate acoustic barriers, shields, or walls that absorb, mitigate, and/or prevent the escape of noise, thereby resulting in the offsite emission of excessive noise beyond its property."

At the other side of this argument, however, are the 375 employees at Microsoft’s Mount Pleasant facilities, many of whom live locally.

While Microsoft is yet to respond to the lawsuit, it previously posted on its blog that it will “continue to work on short-term mitigation, and [...] also install additional sound reduction components and continue to monitor sound at the site.”