There is currently More than 50 country -level permits 404Some of them still require pre-construction notifications-which are renewed once every five years. Many of these exemptions are dedicated to agricultural activities, such as cranberry harvesting and building ponds for farms, or ecosystem and scientific services such as wiping and soil maintenance. Some types of coal mining and oil and gas are also included in the program.
Buildings such as stores, restaurants, hospitals and schools currently have their permit at the country level, in which some data centers are included. However, the permit requires a more deeper individual analysis if the project affects more than half an acre of protected water.
DCC recommended in its commentary in March to create a statement at the country level with “strong notification and coverage of thresholds” and argued that “the long timelines for approvals are not consistent with other national permits that have higher limits or do not contain a threshold where PCN is not needed, allowing immediate action.” Meta, which announced her intention to build Huge data centers Through multiple cases, it is currently Growth A 2250 -acre data center in Louisiana also requested a permit at the country level in his suspension and suggested that the federal government “simplifying” the permit is 404.
Chief international affairs official in Mita Joel Kaplan Posted on X Last week, the artificial intelligence plan is a “bold step to create the appropriate organizational environment for companies such as our companies to invest in America”, and that Meta is “investing hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure to create jobs throughout the United States, including modern data centers.” Meta refused to comment on this article through a spokesman.
Environmental attorneys were not sure that a statement at the country level for data centers, regardless of its size, will follow the intention of the clean water law. “What makes (exemption from the blanket data center) is a little difficult is that the effects will work a little different depending on its whereabouts.” Although one of the data center may affect mere “part of the acres”, he says, by rebuilding the crossing of the current or filling in a wetland, other data centers in different regions of the country may have much greater effects on local waterways while building.
Hana Connor, a senior lawyer at the Biodiversity Center. She says: “What we see here is an attempt to expand the 404 bachelors program at the country level so that it passes through this regulatory review that is very reduced outside the intention of creating the (permit) program.” “There is a lot of low -regulatory review of a type of speed literally along the wetland paving.”
There are some data center projects under development today, which faced major problems with Federal Protected Water. In Indiana, Amazon is currently working to avoid local opposition because she is trying Fill Nearly 10 acres of wetlands and more than 5,000 streams to build a huge data center. In Alabama, advocates of environmental protection to caution The water fingerprint from the proposed data center can have serious effects on local waterways and cause potential extinction of fish species.
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