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To the Town of Massena Planning Board and Town Board:

Re: SEQR review — proposed NYDIG / NCCS data-center expansion, former Reynolds Metals / Alcoa East site

I am a Massena resident writing about the environmental review now underway. I am not asking you to decide the project today — I am asking you to make sure it gets a real, complete review before anyone votes.

For a project of this magnitude — roughly 635 megawatts on a former aluminum-smelter site with documented contamination on the St. Lawrence River — I respectfully urge the lead agency to issue a POSITIVE DECLARATION and require a full Environmental Impact Statement. Under SEQR, an action that "may result in a significant adverse impact" requires one, and a Negative Declaration must be supported by hard data, not assurances.

Three impacts warrant that full study:

1. Disturbance of contaminated ground. The site's uplands carry PCBs, PAHs, dioxins, and metals that were capped and contained in place under federal cleanup, immediately adjacent to a monitored river-sediment cap. Heavy new construction — excavation, grading, dewatering, increased stormwater — raises real questions about cap integrity and re-mobilizing contamination toward the river. The EIS should analyze cap integrity, soil management, dewatering, and stormwater controls.

2. Noise. Facilities like this have produced measured 24/7 noise of 70 to 90 decibels at the property line in other communities. In North Tonawanda, New York, a comparable facility exceeded the city's nighttime noise limit every night, drawing citations and a moratorium. The applicant has committed to acoustic modeling under SEQR; I ask that the model be worst-case, nighttime, at the property line, measured against state and local standards.

3. Energy and electric-rate impact. A 635 MW load is enormous. When a crypto operation scaled up in Plattsburgh, New York, residential electric bills spiked and the city became the first in the United States to pause crypto mining. The EIS should analyze grid impact, who pays for any required upgrades, and the effect on local electric rates and jobs per megawatt.

Finally, I ask the board to require the applicant to put real numbers on the record before any determination of significance: the cooling technology and a full water mass-balance (the company states a closed-loop system — that should be verified, not assumed), projected water use and any discharge, worst-case acoustic modeling, and any on-site backup generators with their air permits.

Please do not accept a Negative Declaration for a project of this size on a site like this. Require the Environmental Impact Statement, so the community has the facts before any vote. Thank you.

[Your name]
[Your address, Massena NY]
[Date]