Company behind Port Washington data center discusses environmental concerns

PORT WASHINGTON, Wis. (CBS 58) - Vantage, the company behind the Port Washington Data Center, announced this week that the center will be a part of the Stargate expansion.

The company also doubled down on the claim that the data center campus will not impact the environment in Port Washington and the southeast Wisconsin region. 

“We are buying our electricity from sources that don’t pollute as much as possible,” Vantage Sustainability Director for North America Emily Backus said. “We’re only using water that we absolutely need to operate our business.”

Clean Wisconsin is expressing concerns about what Vantage is claiming, saying the data center will have a long-term impact on the air and water throughout the region. 

“What we do know is that data centers use a tremendous amount of energy,” Clean Wisconsin Communications Director Amy Barrilleaux said. “These aren’t separate things you know, energy needs and water needs, they are very much combined.”

Backus says Vantage has worked to make sure the data center stays efficient while using resources, and that the new campus will only use around 22,000 gallons of water a day, equivalent to 56 houses. 

“There is water circulating in the building but that is filled up once, it is not evaporated and then discharged anywhere, our internal systems continuously clean that water so it can be used appropriately,” Backus said. 

Clean Wisconsin believes that the data center will lead to issues in the water system and the air throughout the area. 

“To do this in a way where we’re not harming ourselves and we’re not hurting everything that we need to survive as human beings, our water, our energy grid, our air, I think that remains to be seen but we need to figure it out,” Barrilleaux said. 

Vantage also claims that the land will be more biodiverse after construction is complete than it is now. 

 “We’re working really closely with our landscape designers to make sure that the final details of what we end up planting will support the maximum positive biodiversity,” Backus said. 

According to Vantage, the data center campus will be up and running by 2028. 

“It’s one thing to talk about Port Washington but what about the next Port Washington, and the next one and the next one,” Barrilleaux said.