As Indiana cities see more data centers express interest in setting down roots in the state, local communities and environmental activists are expressing concern about the potential for the new facilities to create local health hazards.
Many have expressed anxiety about potential air pollution from the multiple diesel backup generators the facilities will rely on to run. Indiana already struggles with high levels of air pollution as a recent American Lung Association report revealed.
A Google data center in the southeastern portion of Fort Wayne will have at least 179 diesel generators, air emissions permits issued by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management show. In New Carlisle, which lies west of South Bend, permit documents show Amazon is seeking at least 234 diesel generators for its data center.
While the types of generators vary at each site, these are not the engines found in big box stores. A typical retail generator might provide 6-20 kilowatts of power, while each data center generator can deliver at least 3,015 kilowatts.
Once the generators are up and running, they could emit tons of pollutants each year, according to the permits even though state policy prohibits them from running constantly. IDEM air emissions permits will allow generators to run for a maximum of 500 hours per year at some sites.
Hoosiers seek greater health protections
Even with a limit to how many hours the generators can run, some who live near proposed data centers remain concerned.
Jorge Fernandez, a teacher in Fort Wayne, has spent the last few years advocating for better protections at Google’s data center development known as Project Zodiac. An active environmental advocate, Fernandez has run unsuccessfully for various public offices in the city.
When Google first came to town in 2023, Fernandez said, not much was known about the project’s implications. Not until the company filed air permits with the state did Fernandez grow worried.
“When you’re looking at diesel backup generation on this scale, it’s essentially a mini oil power plant right next to these people’s homes,” Fernandez said. “And again, this was kind of foisted on them with a lack of concern of environmental impacts or impacts to the neighbors.”
Google’s first air permit application in 2024 only listed a couple dozen diesel backup generators, but a few months after IDEM approved the request, Google modified the permit and asked for 140 more generators on the site. Google did not respond to IndyStar’s request for an interview.
Just over 100 miles to the northeast, Michigan City residents could also welcome a data center neighbor. The community already faces poor air quality conditions, said Just Transition Northwest Indiana’s executive director Ashley Williams.
The Michigan City site, known as Project Maize, will hold more than 60 diesel generators at a Brownfield site in the southeast part of the city. Brownfields are properties where past industrial activity has contaminated the area.
The Project Maize generators will be Tier 2 generators, typical for backup power generation. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency classifies generators based on emissions standards and Tier 2 diesel generators emit more pollution than the newer, stricter standards given to Tier 4 generators.
When burned, diesel emits harmful pollutants such as ground-level ozone, particulate matter and other toxic gases. These emissions can cause respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.
“There is no excuse in 2026 for Big Tech to be relying on such archaic and outdated technology,” Williams said.
Instead, Google should move beyond Tier 4 generators and look at battery storage and renewable energy sources, Williams said.
Amazon promises less pollution
One company, however, says it is utilizing the higher standard generators. Amazon will employ Tier 4 compliant generators throughout its data center operations in Indiana. This choice exceeds current regulatory requirements, an Amazon spokesperson wrote to IndyStar.
Each of Amazon’s generators runs, on average, 10 hours each year mostly for testing purposes to prepare for emergency circumstances when the facility would need to rely on them. In New Carlisle, the company’s data center has 234 diesel backup generators.
The company submits annual compliance reports to IDEM detailing the facilities emissions. These show the data centers emit a fraction of the allowable pollution.
Local efforts to protect health expand
Williams’ organization and dozens of others throughout the state are calling on local governments to put a stop to data centers until new policies and regulations are put in place.
The Hoosier Environmental Council also signed onto the moratorium and has staff researching the potential impacts of data centers. Rebecca TeKolste, senior energy and climate advisor with HEC, said in addition to on-site diesel generation, the council is concerned about data centers’ reliance on offsite, utility-scale gas plants for the majority of their day-to-day power.
“This is enough emissions to jeopardize the net zero targets of entire cities,” TeKolste said.
The large demand for energy coming from data centers is also keeping coal-fired power plants operational, creating harmful emissions sometimes hundreds of miles away from the site, impacting Hoosiers who live far away as well as those nearby, TeKolste said.
What can Hoosiers learn from Virginia?
The data enter build out in Indiana is just getting started, but in northern Virginia, which is known as Data Center Alley due to the high number of facilities there, organizations have been tracking emissions for years.
Julie Bolthouse, director of land use at Piedmont Environmental Council in Virginia, said in the area surrounding a cluster of data centers, the air pollution is about the same as that found near a utility-size gas plant, according to a Virginia Commonwealth University report.
The study clarifies that the current emissions from data centers represents a small percentage of what is permitted. If the facilities used the full capacity of the permits, “data center emissions would be orders of magnitude higher” than the power plants to which the study compared them.
“The air pollution potential is very significant today, but we’re also concerned with what it means 20 years from now,” Bolthouse said.
In the meantime, the power demand for Virginia’s data centers is outpacing regional utilities’ ability to bring power online, meaning some companies are retrofitting small gas turbines on data center grounds to provide power until the electric companies can keep pace.
These turbines have not been proposed in Indiana, but that does little to calm environmentalists’ concerns about an influx of data centers here.
“We didn’t want this, we didn’t ask for it,” Williams said. “Municipalities are saying their hands are tied and that they have basically no choice but to allow these predatory data centers in our backyards.”
Karl Schneider is an IndyStar environment reporter. You can reach him at karl.schneider@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @karlstartswithk or BlueSky @karlstartswithk.bsky.social.
IndyStar’s environmental reporting project is made possible through the generous support of the nonprofit Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: How data centers could add to Indiana’s air pollution
Reporting by Karl Schneider, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
