04 of 06 What Council hasn't been told
Backup generators and the air we breathe
Data centers keep big backup generators in case the power goes out. They usually burn diesel. Nobody has said how many this one would have, or where they'd sit.
The short version
- The application doesn't say how many generators, how big, what fuel, or where they'd go.
- The City's rules limit when generators can be tested. That only works if the City knows what's there.
- The state's air permit process needs those same facts. We haven't found an air permit application.
What's missing
The current application doesn't list the number, size, fuel type, location or testing schedule of the backup generators. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says engines like these are a common backup power source for data centers, and they come with air pollution rules.
The City's rules count on knowing
Statesboro's ordinance names generators as one of the main reasons it exists. It says it wants to protect neighborhoods from "the 24-hour operation of mechanical cooling systems and emergency backup generators."
It also says routine generator testing is allowed only on weekdays, between 10 AM and 5 PM, for no more than 60 minutes.
That's a good rule. But it only works if the City knows how many generators there are and where they sit. Right now, nobody does.
The state's air permit
Georgia's Environmental Protection Division (EPD) reviews big engines like these based on how many there are, how big they are, and what fuel they burn. That's how it models the pollution that reaches nearby homes.
We asked EPD's Air Protection Branch for any records about this site on August 31, 2026. As of September 3, it was still searching. We haven't seen an air permit application.
Here's a sample Georgia air permit (PDF), so you can see what one looks like.
When data centers cluster
One building's generators might not sound like much. But data centers tend to show up in groups. And they're heading our way: Pew Research found that 67% of planned U.S. data centers are in rural areas, the South has nearly half of them, and Georgia has 141 planned, the third most in the country. Northern Virginia has more of them than anywhere in the world, so researchers there can see what happens.
Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University studied 138 data centers in Northern Virginia. From 2015 to 2023, pollution from their backup generators went way up:
- Carbon monoxide: up 196%
- Nitrous oxide: up 111%
- Particulate matter (the tiny bits of soot you breathe in): up 139%
One of the researchers put it this way: "you'd rather be living next to a natural gas power plant than living next to a whole bunch of data centers, in terms of the total amount of air pollution they put out per year." The study also found that lower-income neighborhoods and renters got more of the pollution.
A Harvard public health researcher looked at a single data center in Loudoun County, Virginia, that runs its own gas turbines. He estimated $53 million to $99 million a year in health damages, including 3.4 to 6.5 extra early deaths a year.
Nobody has said how many generators Burkhalter would have, and nobody is adding up the air pollution from all the projects coming to our region.
How many generators are planned? How big are they, what fuel do they burn, and where will they and their fuel tanks sit? Has Georgia EPD received an air permit application, and will its pollution modeling include the nearby homes? Will Council require "emergencies only" in writing? And if Council approves before any of this is known, how will the testing limits and the air permit be enforced on machines nobody has named yet? And will EPD or the City look at the combined air pollution from all the generators planned in our region, not just one building at a time?