Data Center Lawsuit Investigation

If you live near a data center and are experiencing nonstop noise, degraded or depleted water quality and supply, rising utility bills, or declining property values, you may have legal rights. Berger Montague is investigating these harms on behalf of affected residents and communities.

A.I. boom and data centers

The explosive growth of artificial intelligence and cloud computing has triggered an unprecedented wave of data center construction across the United States. Hyperscale computing facilities — some spanning hundreds of acres and consuming as much electricity as a city of 50,000 people — are quickly popping up in residential communities with inadequate environmental review and little public input. There are now over 4,000 data centers operating in the country.

While big tech companies profit from these facilities, the surrounding communities bear the costs: relentless mechanical noise that disrupts sleep, groundwater depletion that dries up private wells, diesel generator emissions that contaminate the air, and surging utility bills.

Harms caused by data centers

• Noise pollution. Data center diesel generators and their heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems create a constant tonal noise that can be audible to neighboring residents and wildlife. They can generate noise levels that exceed 90 decibels, a level harmful to hearing.
• Light pollution. These facilities require all-night lighting that can disrupt our natural sleep cycles. Light pollution also disrupts bird, butterfly, and other wildlife migration patterns.
• Water depletion and contamination. Data centers need massive amounts of water to cool computer servers so they do not become too hot to properly function. Large hyperscale facilities can use up to 5 million gallons of water per day.
• Air pollution and diesel emissions. According to Virginia Commonwealth University research, emissions from data centers’ generators increased substantially in a region with 138 data centers between 2015 and 2023: Carbon monoxide emissions increased by 196%, nitrous oxide emissions rose by 111%, and dangerous particulate matter emissions jumped by 139%.
• Utility rate increases. Data centers are large load consumers of energy, needing massive amounts of power, and they can cause an increase in their neighbors’ utility rates. The power grid’s energy costs in the mid-Atlantic rose up to 20 percent in 2025, with data centers identified as one of primary reasons for the rate increase.

Do you live near a data center?

Click HERE to see if there is a data center near you and who operates the facility.

About Berger Montague

Berger Montague is one of the nation’s preeminent law firms focusing on complex civil litigation, class actions, and mass torts in federal and state courts throughout the United States. With more than $2.4 billion in 2025 post-trial judgments alone, the Firm is a leader in the fields of complex litigation, antitrust, consumer protection, defective products, environmental law, employment law, securities, and whistleblower cases, among many other practice areas. For over 55 years, Berger Montague has played leading roles in precedent-setting cases and has recovered over $50 billion for its clients and the classes they have represented. Berger Montague is headquartered in Philadelphia and has offices in Chicago; Malvern, PA; Minneapolis; San Diego; San Francisco; Toronto, Canada; Washington, D.C., and Wilmington, DE.