The Arc of Environmental Justice Bends Towards Perseverance

By Maurice Carter, Sustainable Newton Co-founder & President

If you drove down Hazelbrand Road east of GA-142 last week, you may have noticed increased construction activity at the VoltaGrid "pop-up" power plant next to the Serverfarm data center. Or you may have seen one of the plant's 33 gas-fired engines on a flatbed truck parked temporarily on the off-ramp near the site.

In July, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) cited both companies for unpermitted construction and ordered VoltaGrid to stop building emission units until EPD issued a final air permit. On Friday, September 18 -- seven months after circulating the draft permit for comment -- EPD finally issued the final permit giving the company permission to complete construction.

Sustainable Newton released our statement Friday summarizing what the permit means. We are disappointed -- but not surprised -- by EPD's decision to issue the permit.  It's unquestionable that issues we raised significantly delayed issuance of a final permit.  But that delay was never our objective. From the beginning, when VoltaGrid and Serverfarm applied for permits last fall, our goal has been to hold both companies accountable for the full scope of air pollution created by their combined operations. We believed it was inappropriate for EPD to permit them as two separate minor sources of pollution, skirting tighter emissions restrictions their combined operation would require under Title V of the federal Clean Air Act.

In the narrative and the permit just issued, EPD agreed.

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On Our Biggest Objection, EPD Ultimately Agreed

During the public comment period on EPD's draft permit for the VoltaGrid ATL-1 EGU site, Sustainable Newton joined the Southern Environmental Law Center and Altamaha Riverkeeper to file comments in a March 13 letter. In that letter, we argued "EPD must permit VoltaGrid and the adjacent Serverfarm operation as a single source," asserting that:

"VoltaGrid intends to sell power exclusively to the adjacent Serverfarm datacenter, and Serverfarm will be solely reliant on VoltaGrid’s power; the two entities will likewise share the same piece of undivided property, owned by Serverfarm. Despite the foregoing, EPD is proposing to permit the two entities as separate sources, allowing both sources to escape more rigorous Title V permitting requirements, amongst other issues. This appears to be improper—especially because this arrangement would violate the Georgia Territorial Act, as discussed below."

In the final permit narrative, EPD acknowledged our comment and agreed with the single-source designation, writing in the Addendum on page 14:

“Based on a contractual agreement EPD became aware of after the issuance of the draft permit, the Division has determined that VoltaGrid and ATL2 [Serverfarm] are a single, minor NSR site. VoltaGrid is considered a support facility for the data center and is under common control. The combination of the two facilities will be a synthetic minor source with respect to Title V and will share a NOX emission limit. VoltaGrid will limit emissions and operating hours to ensure all criteria pollutants remain below the major source threshold for the combined facilities.”

We'll See a Difference in the Air We Breathe

Addendum B, starting on page 17, enumerates the updated emissions, limitations, and toxic impact assessment resulting from combined single-source designation for VoltaGrid and Serverfarm.  The material impact is that VoltaGrid agreed to reduce the total annual hours their engines will run and to operate no more than 30 of the 33 engines at at the same time.  This "voluntary" limitation was necessary for the combined "single-source" emissions from both sites to remain below the 100-ton threshold to be considered a "synthetic minor" source and avoid additional federal oversight as a "major source."

The table below summarizes emissions data from the permit narrative.  The "before" column reflects the total amount of each pollutant that would have been emitted if each facility was permitted as a separate source. The "after" column indicates how much will be allowed with the two sites permitted as a combined single source. The rows highlighted in yellow are pollutants that would have exceeded the major-source threshold without the limits on engine run-times.

The biggest reduction will be for NOx -- which includes nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂).  Carbon monoxide (CO) would also have exceeded the major source threshold without reduced runtimes.  But, as the table shows, all criteria pollutants will be lower by the amount shown in the "delta" and "percent change" columns.

PM = Particulate Matter (the numbers represent size in microns)
NOx = Nitrogen Oxides
SO2 = Sulphur Dioxide
CO = Carbon Monoxide
VOC = Volatile Organic Compounds
HAP = Hazardous Air Pollutants (such as formaldehyde, benzene, mercury, etc.)

For more context on the human health implications of these pollutants, see the video replay below featuring Dr. Anne Mellinger-Birdsong, MD presenting about air quality impacts of data centers for the five-part webinar series "Data Centers and Health" jointly hosted by Sierra Club of Georgia, Third Act Georgia, Science for Georgia, and the National Coalition Against Cryptomining.

As Dr. Mellinger-Birdsong shows, these pollutants have significant health impacts for children and elderly adults -- and some measurable effect on all of us.  So, we would rather not have these 33 gas-fired engines running in our community at all. But our active public participation in the permitting process led to improved results, compared to what VoltaGrid and Serverfarm were requesting.  And we look forward to seeing the "pop-up" power plant disassembled as soon as Georgia Power provides grid power to the data center site (estimated July 2027).

We're Not Done Yet

Meanwhile, there is still the matter of our petition filed on July 13, 2026 with the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC), asking for expedited declaratory ruling on the lawfulness of the VoltaGrid, LLC operation, as initially described in their air permit application. We raised this issue in our March 13 letter to EPD, commenting on the draft permit, where we argued that "VoltaGrid and Serverfarm's proposed operations violate Georgia's Territorial Act."

In the final permit narrative, EPD responded "This comment falls outside the purview and authority of EPD." But the PSC agreed to hear our petition, assigning a hearing officer and scheduling the  hearing on December 9, 2026. Our case is assigned Docket Number 57243.

Though the air permitting process with EPD and the hearing before the PSC are separate matters before two different state regulatory agencies, there is a common thread: to ensure that VoltaGrid and Serverfarm are required to operate transparently and in compliance with Georgia's laws.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. famously said "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."  I would add that the arc of environmental justice is long, but it bends towards perseverance.