Ohioans, Sen. Moreno protest Ohio EPA potentially allowing data centers to dump wastewater into rivers

Ohioans and U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, criticized the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency for releasing a draft of a new permit that would allow data centers in Ohio to discharge wastewater directly into rivers and streams.

EPA was considering the new permit for data centers that drive up electricity costs and, according to some reports, are linked to rare cancers and miscarriages last year, which led to pushback from Ohio residents.

The recently released permit would apply to water that circulates through all current or future data centers in the Buckeye State.

“The EPA is supposed to be protecting the environment; it’s in the title,” John Schol, one of the Ohio residents, told NBC 4, expressing his concerns about the environmental impact if the permit will eventually allow data centers to discharge wastewater. “And this draft essentially just makes it clear that they understand that the data centers themselves are going to be releasing pollutants.”

The draft that NBC 4 included in the article said that “lowering of water quality of various waters of the state associated with granting coverage under this permit is necessary to accommodate important social and economic development in the state of Ohio.”

“This provision excludes the need for the submittal and subsequent review of technical alternatives and social and economic issues related to the degradation,” the draft said. “Other rule provisions, however, including public participation and appropriate intergovernmental coordination, were required and considered prior to reaching this decision.”

Scholl said that this is not a good justification, adding that it would only benefit Ohioans in the short term.

“Even for the jobs they create, they’re mainly short-term,” Scholl said, per the report. “When you’re building it, it creates about 1,700 jobs. That’s mainly construction workers. That’s mainly people and contractors to build these centers. But after that, it only creates 157, like, permanent jobs.”

Dublin resident Amy Swank also questioned the draft, asking if 200 data centers would positively affect the health of Ohioans.

Dublin residents previously opposed building data centers near their homes.

“I think that there are real questions about what is in the water that comes out of data centers,” she said. “When that water leaves, you know, what further chemicals does it contain? What microplastics does it contain? Are our wastewater treatment plants able to address those? Those are real concerns.”

According to the news source, some residents near the data centers also questioned how it would affect the financial situation of Ohioans living in those areas.

“It’s really the Ohio taxpayers that are paying for this because they will pay for any remediation that is required,” Swank said. “They will pay for any monitoring that the Ohio EPA has to do.”

Moreno also responded to NBC 4’s recent news, criticizing the data centers.

“Ohio should not compromise the integrity of our waterways to help data centers,” he wrote on X. “The companies putting these centers up have so much money, we expect the water going back into our rivers to be cleaner than ever before!”

Ohio should not compromise the integrity of our waterways to help data centers. The companies putting these centers up have so much money we expect the water going back into our rivers to be cleaner than ever before!https://t.co/eYQKQIoloV

— Bernie Moreno (@berniemoreno) February 27, 2026

The EPA didn’t respond to the recent draft, but gave NBC 4 a fact sheet on the permit that the news source included in the published article.