An Equinix data center spilled several thousand gallons of diesel fuel into a New Jersey river late last week. The spill has inflamed anti-data center sentiment in a state that recently enacted new regulations for the data center industry.
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More than 5,000 gallons of No. 2 diesel was improperly discharged from a storage tank outside Equinix’s NY2 data center in Secaucus, with some of the fuel flowing into a tributary of the Hackensack River, according to several local media reports. New Jersey officials say the spill has now been contained, with cleanup continuing throughout this week.
While data centers typically have large tanks of diesel fuel on-site for backup generators that must keep the facility running under its own power for days in the event of a grid outage, it isn’t clear whether the tank from which the spill originated was to provide fuel for generators or for heating and vehicles used on-site.
Unlike the massive hyperscale campuses being built to support artificial intelligence, Equinix’s NY2 data center is a 25-year-old, interconnection-focused data center. The facility largely hosts financial services and electronic trading workloads due to its proximity to New York City.
Friday’s spill was caused by a “computer glitch” that led to thousands of gallons of fuel being pumped out of the tank, Secaucus Mayor Michael Gonnelli told NBC New York.
“This should never have happened, and any such incident is extremely upsetting, to say the least,” Gonnelli said in a statement to the NBC affiliate. “I am not an environmental expert, but I know that incidents such as these don’t have a good outcome if they are not taken care of properly.”
In a statement reported by CBS News, Equinix highlighted its more than two-decade track record at the site, adding that the firm detected the fuel leak itself, stopped it, and immediately contacted relevant state agencies and retained environmental remediation firms to oversee the cleanup. The company said it is committed to resolving the incident and will be transparent with the surrounding community.
“We are working closely with those agencies, local officials, and community stakeholders to ensure a thorough remediation, while also conducting a full investigation to determine the root cause and prevent recurrence,” Equinix said in the statement.
The spill comes as data centers are emerging as a contentious political issue in New Jersey, a significant data center market due to its proximity to New York. Growing concerns over the industry’s power consumption and potential environmental impacts led Gov. Mikie Sherrill to sign legislation in August requiring data center owners and operators to report their power and water usage twice a year.
But in the wake of Friday’s spill, some environmental groups are calling for much more drastic action, urging Sherrill to impose a statewide moratorium on data center development.
“This is what happens when the data center industry is allowed to operate without any rules, and new ones are popping up all over New Jersey,” Ben Dziobek, executive director of Climate Revolution Action Network, said in a statement, according to NorthJersey.com. “We need a statewide ban right now before they do any more damage to our communities.”
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