The Minnesota Court of Appeals on June 8 halted – for the time being, at least – the construction of a proposed 500,000 square-foot, 84-acre hyperscale data center in Faribault, Minn.

According to the court, the city of Faribault did not have enough information about the potential environmental impacts of the proposed data center when it determined that a more-thorough environmental review was not necessary before approval of the project.

Last August, the Faribault City Council approved an environmental assessment worksheet for a proposed hyperscale data in Faribault. City officials determined that a more exhaustive environmental impact statement was not needed for project approval. In response, a nonprofit, the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, filed an appeal challenging that decision. Specifically, the group argued that the city did not have enough information about potential air quality impacts, noise pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions, nor did it consider the possible cumulative effects of the proposed data center with other area projects — all of which draw on area water and energy resources.

The Court of Appeals ultimately agreed with the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, finding that the city of Faribault violated state law by failing to take a hard look at the potential environmental impacts of the proposed project before making its approval decision. The court ordered the city to revise the environmental study for a more complete and transparent analysis of the proposed data center’s potential impacts on nearby natural resources and residences.

The city must now either order an environmental impact statement or postpone its decision for up to 30 days to include the necessary, missing information in their current environmental study.

The process for reviewing proposed data centers both in Minnesota and nationwide generally has not required thorough environmental impact statements. The recent Minnesota decision, however, may indicate a change — particularly as more hyperscale data centers, which dwarf traditional data centers in scope and scale, seek construction approval.

Local communities are also pushing back on data center construction due to the potential environmental impacts (covered recently by Goldberg Segalla’s Environmental Law Monitor here: More and More Communities Saying, ‘No Data Centers Allowed!’). Moving forward, proposed data center projects, like the one in Faribault, will need to answer specific questions about environmental impacts prior to approval.