I would legitimately have driven my car through that building if I lived here.
ksec · 2h ago
How is that legal in US? I am pretty sure that is not legal is many part of the world even if the sound was only on from 9 to 5.
And last time I went to a Datacentre it may be an eye sore but it doesn't produce any noise at all. Do all DC in US produce noise like that?
thepryz · 2h ago
No. Hyperscale data centers like those discussed in the article are usually evaporative cooled and tend to be relatively quiet outside the building unless they are running generators due to testing or utility outages. You may hear a low pitched fan hum if the data center is running hot or they need to purge the air inside for another reason. Assuming you have competent controls and facilities engineers, that should be pretty rare.
I have heard sounds like that from AI/ML host racks, but that's inside the datahall, which makes me wonder what kind of building and cooling design they have.
jcranmer · 2h ago
> How is that legal in US? I am pretty sure that is not legal is many part of the world even if the sound was only on from 9 to 5.
It's probably not legal, although this is an area of law that is generally delegated to the most local levels of governments, so the details will vary based on where exactly you're located. There's going to be a catch-all public nuisance ordinance this would fall under, although there may also be a specific noise ordinance that this is violating.
organsnyder · 1h ago
Yeah, this could happen very easily, especially in a small municipality. A hypothetical order of events:
A datacenter operator approaches the township, selling the town commissioners on a project that will make them an "AI hub". The town leaders don't know the correct questions to ask, especially regarding noise, but they know they'll be lambasted if they turn this down. And the developer claims they have a dozen other sites that are shovel-ready if this town gives them any hassle.
The neighbor probably gets a postcard in the mail letting them know about an upcoming development hearing. This postcard is easily overlooked among the day's junk mail, and it doesn't have many details, anyways. Or, perhaps the neighbor has an attitude similar to many rural residents, and figures whatever happens on their neighbor's property isn't their concern (these are large properties, after all).
Even if the neighbor does complain, they're one voice against the many that want to see new development in their town—perhaps the first in recent memory (other than the two Dollar General stores that drove their old independent stores out of business). And so much in small town government depends on interpersonal relationships; perhaps the neighbor isn't well-connected, or a town commissioner even has an old grudge against them.
All of this is happening with little notice from the public. The newspaper was bought out by Gannett a decade ago; it's now thrice-weekly edition is 90% wire service stories, with the local coverage consisting almost entirely of "hard-hitting" crime coverage written by a reporter who is also the only local reporter for three other papers.
djohnston · 2h ago
I've been never to one that sounds like that, but I've only been to a handful of small ones. I would imagine a company crude enough to set it up so close to someone's house isn't doing any sort of noise abatement either.
bearjaws · 1h ago
It's Arkansas which follows the golden rule, those who have the gold set the rules.
solardev · 2h ago
In the US, corporate wrongs trump human rights.
bloomingeek · 1h ago
Unfortunately, you make a point based on the supreme court.
SCOTUS decided that corporations are people, which refers to the legal concept of corporate personhood. The question is: can a "person" legally disturb their neighbor with this amount of noise and get away with it? Wrongly, I think SCOTUS would decide in favor of the corporation if it gets that far.
ramesh31 · 2h ago
>How is that legal in US? I am pretty sure that is not legal is many part of the world even if the sound was only on from 9 to 5.
Because the people who live there voted for the kind of people who would allow it to happen. And they'll do it again, every time.
That's the "capitalism" these politicians are referring to when they are saying they're "pro-capitalism". They're saying that they're very much in support of people with money doing whatever they want to people without.
arethuza · 2h ago
'What do I care about law? Ain't I got the power?'
Cornelius Vanderbilt
hnuser123456 · 2h ago
That sounds like hundreds of 40mm or 80mm fans running at 5000rpm. You can get a lot more airflow with less wasted power by using larger slower fans... and they won't wear out as fast.
bearjaws · 1h ago
That is pretty typical of these miners, typically 1U type designs.
I'm familiar with site in question and not surprised. The location of the first campus built in Hilliard is extremely problematic, but more due to traffic patterns than anything else. The entrance is along a road that gets busy and trucks going into and out of the campus have been known to cause backups while they wait to get access through the security gates. They alienated a lot of the local residents from that alone.
As for the safety record, I think it's fair to say that the issues are largely due to AWS leadership in the central Ohio region not taking safety seriously and internal politics where leaders tend to be more concerned with their own self-interest, avoiding a PIP, managing perception, and advancing their careers.
There's a lot of talk about prioritizing safety but there's a distinct lack of ownership from the senior leaders. The relationships between Safety, Security and Operations are more adversarial than collaborative but it's easy to simply ignore the problem and/or push the blame to others while nothing gets solved. I have plenty of anecdotes I could share but it would just be airing dirty laundry and ultimately not productive.
ctkhn · 2h ago
First off I do think being a NIMBY about amazon and data centers is fair game, I wouldn't want those either. But I've been to Columbus, and as far as the metro area goes, this is not the highest and best use place.
There's a lot of land in neighborhoods nearer to downtown actually being redeveloped for higher tax value with residential, offices, shopping, and nightlife or that's primed once developers make their way through Old Town East and Franklinton. Even the land being redeveloped in the new fake-downtowns of suburban developments are more around Dublin and mostly within the bounds of 270.
I wish the Dispatch was still local but it was bought out a while ago. They pretend to be but it's gone significantly downhill since.
thepryz · 1h ago
I think you raise a good point. Everything from local newspapers, local TV news, HOA and rental management, and even community sports programs are increasingly run by national organizations that have no connection to the local community and no interest in the community aside from extracting money.
Focusing on just the media side of things, you already see how easy it is to spread propaganda and it's only getting worse with SkyDance's merger with CBS. Not sure I have any answers here, but it's definitely a problem we need to solve sooner rather than later.
Spivak · 2h ago
Not at all the same caliber but one of the Dispatch editors left to go make The Clintonville Spotlight and other local neighborhood papers if you want some actually local news.
ericmay · 2h ago
Thank you - I'm not sure what happened. I know the Dispatch is owned or affiliated with USA Today, and given the paywall I copied the link to post it here with an Archive URL too, but somehow USAToday.com was copied to my clipboard from their site.
meatmanek · 2h ago
This now 404s.
delfinom · 3h ago
>The Amazon centers are property tax-abated for 10 years, providing instead 1.5% income tax on workers via a joint economic development agreement with Marysville.
After construction, a small fraction of workers remain to be taxed, she said.
Lol, gotta love the scam. Small town politicians must get some amazing bribes.
>While under construction about a year ago, a worker at the Warren Road Amazon facility was crushed to death, Stewart said. Another fell to his death in February at the Industrial Parkway site.
And an April 17 fire at the Industrial Parkway center tied up firefighters for more than 30 hours, causing $50 million in damage, Stewart said.
During each call, Stewart said, Amazon officials have not been helpful.
"They wanted to do background checks on all my firefighters; I wouldn't let them," he said. "And we've struggled to gain access to emergencies. They'll stop us at the gate, and our medic units have been delayed. They're denying us access to patients.
You immediately arrest have any employee interfering with emergency response and throw them in jail. Repeat until Amazon runs out of employees dumb enough to continue doing so.
hermannj314 · 2h ago
But our CISO paint-by-number checklist says only people with background checks and the NDAs can enter the data center. We can't have emergency services stealing our customer's bits!
guardiangod · 2h ago
>You immediately arrest have any employee interfering with emergency response and throw them in jail.
Imagine that you work for a 3 letter US agency and is storing confidential data on AWS. Would you allow random individuals (yes even for emergency personnel) to have unfetter access to your computation and storage systems? What about health data? What about data belonging to other countries? Do you do a sweep for unauthorized remote access device after the incident?
hakkoru · 1h ago
I've never experienced it but I've been told that if an emergency responder needs to enter an area where classified information is stored you let them in, escort them, and security will debrief them and have them sign an NDA after the fact if they saw any classified information.
thepryz · 47m ago
This is largely correct. However, staff also need to be trained and drilled on security policies and procedures. That's often lacking, especially if security is outsourced to third party contractors.
stronglikedan · 1h ago
Then they need to have staff on site that is fully qualified to handle any type of emergency any time there is anyone at all in the facility, which they don't.
rightbyte · 1h ago
Well the thing with emergency services needing emergency access right now is that Amazon would have needed to think about that at an earlier stage.
stackskipton · 1h ago
If that’s what they are storing, they can do what many other government agencies are doing and staff their own first responders.
BeFlatXIII · 1h ago
…and why should the local fire department care about those concerns?
mjr00 · 1h ago
Because there are federal agents with rifles guarding the data center, and they're allowed to use deadly force if the local FD ignores their instructions.
FireBeyond · 53m ago
What AWS datacenters are guarded by federal agents?
So you let them in with an eyes on, constant escort.
FireBeyond · 54m ago
> "And we've struggled to gain access to emergencies. They'll stop us at the gate, and our medic units have been delayed. They're denying us access to patients.
> You immediately arrest have any employee interfering with emergency response and throw them in jail. Repeat until Amazon runs out of employees dumb enough to continue doing so.
Absolutely. Ex-paramedic/firefighter. We responded to a cult facility once (think Nexium-esque but "bigger"). 911 call for chest pain. Stopped at the gate by armed guards. "You can't bring your ambulance in". Uh, yes, we can. "No. We can't allow you in, then." My officer at the time, to the head guard, "Are you the individual who called 911?" "No, I'm not, someone in there did." "Alright, so to be very clear before I call law enforcement out here, you are acknowledging you are interfering with emergency services performing their duty by actively preventing us from getting to our patient?"
I would legitimately have driven my car through that building if I lived here.
And last time I went to a Datacentre it may be an eye sore but it doesn't produce any noise at all. Do all DC in US produce noise like that?
I have heard sounds like that from AI/ML host racks, but that's inside the datahall, which makes me wonder what kind of building and cooling design they have.
It's probably not legal, although this is an area of law that is generally delegated to the most local levels of governments, so the details will vary based on where exactly you're located. There's going to be a catch-all public nuisance ordinance this would fall under, although there may also be a specific noise ordinance that this is violating.
A datacenter operator approaches the township, selling the town commissioners on a project that will make them an "AI hub". The town leaders don't know the correct questions to ask, especially regarding noise, but they know they'll be lambasted if they turn this down. And the developer claims they have a dozen other sites that are shovel-ready if this town gives them any hassle.
The neighbor probably gets a postcard in the mail letting them know about an upcoming development hearing. This postcard is easily overlooked among the day's junk mail, and it doesn't have many details, anyways. Or, perhaps the neighbor has an attitude similar to many rural residents, and figures whatever happens on their neighbor's property isn't their concern (these are large properties, after all).
Even if the neighbor does complain, they're one voice against the many that want to see new development in their town—perhaps the first in recent memory (other than the two Dollar General stores that drove their old independent stores out of business). And so much in small town government depends on interpersonal relationships; perhaps the neighbor isn't well-connected, or a town commissioner even has an old grudge against them.
All of this is happening with little notice from the public. The newspaper was bought out by Gannett a decade ago; it's now thrice-weekly edition is 90% wire service stories, with the local coverage consisting almost entirely of "hard-hitting" crime coverage written by a reporter who is also the only local reporter for three other papers.
SCOTUS decided that corporations are people, which refers to the legal concept of corporate personhood. The question is: can a "person" legally disturb their neighbor with this amount of noise and get away with it? Wrongly, I think SCOTUS would decide in favor of the corporation if it gets that far.
Because the people who live there voted for the kind of people who would allow it to happen. And they'll do it again, every time.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Heres a newer model from Bitmain https://bitmain.digital/antminers/antminer-s19pro/index.html
As for the safety record, I think it's fair to say that the issues are largely due to AWS leadership in the central Ohio region not taking safety seriously and internal politics where leaders tend to be more concerned with their own self-interest, avoiding a PIP, managing perception, and advancing their careers.
There's a lot of talk about prioritizing safety but there's a distinct lack of ownership from the senior leaders. The relationships between Safety, Security and Operations are more adversarial than collaborative but it's easy to simply ignore the problem and/or push the blame to others while nothing gets solved. I have plenty of anecdotes I could share but it would just be airing dirty laundry and ultimately not productive.
Dispatch.com link: not sure why the link I added (or thought I added) wasn't to the Dispatch article: https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/local/2025/09/08/ohio-to...
sample: https://dailycoin.com/crypto-mining-law-under-threat-road-to...
https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/local/2025/09/08/ohio-to...
Focusing on just the media side of things, you already see how easy it is to spread propaganda and it's only getting worse with SkyDance's merger with CBS. Not sure I have any answers here, but it's definitely a problem we need to solve sooner rather than later.
Lol, gotta love the scam. Small town politicians must get some amazing bribes.
>While under construction about a year ago, a worker at the Warren Road Amazon facility was crushed to death, Stewart said. Another fell to his death in February at the Industrial Parkway site. And an April 17 fire at the Industrial Parkway center tied up firefighters for more than 30 hours, causing $50 million in damage, Stewart said. During each call, Stewart said, Amazon officials have not been helpful. "They wanted to do background checks on all my firefighters; I wouldn't let them," he said. "And we've struggled to gain access to emergencies. They'll stop us at the gate, and our medic units have been delayed. They're denying us access to patients.
You immediately arrest have any employee interfering with emergency response and throw them in jail. Repeat until Amazon runs out of employees dumb enough to continue doing so.
Imagine that you work for a 3 letter US agency and is storing confidential data on AWS. Would you allow random individuals (yes even for emergency personnel) to have unfetter access to your computation and storage systems? What about health data? What about data belonging to other countries? Do you do a sweep for unauthorized remote access device after the incident?
> You immediately arrest have any employee interfering with emergency response and throw them in jail. Repeat until Amazon runs out of employees dumb enough to continue doing so.
Absolutely. Ex-paramedic/firefighter. We responded to a cult facility once (think Nexium-esque but "bigger"). 911 call for chest pain. Stopped at the gate by armed guards. "You can't bring your ambulance in". Uh, yes, we can. "No. We can't allow you in, then." My officer at the time, to the head guard, "Are you the individual who called 911?" "No, I'm not, someone in there did." "Alright, so to be very clear before I call law enforcement out here, you are acknowledging you are interfering with emergency services performing their duty by actively preventing us from getting to our patient?"
We got let in.