By Lina Irawan 
Local authorities in Secaucus, working in conjunction with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), have been actively managing the aftermath of the leak, which commenced last week from a storage tank at the Equinix facility. The diesel fuel, a critical backup power source for the data center, unfortunately found its way into an unnamed tributary of the Hackensack River. While initial reports from the NJDEP on Tuesday confirmed that the spill had not reached the main body of the Hackensack River, the contamination of a connected waterway still poses a significant environmental risk. Over the past weekend, a dedicated cleanup crew managed to remove "a significant portion of the fuel," with approximately 3,500 gallons recovered by Monday. Despite this progress, efforts continue to extract the remaining fuel from the impacted sections of the creek, underscoring the persistent challenges of containing and remediating such incidents.
Fortunately, the NJDEP stated that there were no observed impacts on local wildlife, a critical concern given the ecological sensitivity of riverine systems. Furthermore, officials confirmed that no drinking water intakes were located near the affected area, alleviating immediate public health anxieties. However, the incident has sparked a broader conversation about the inherent risks associated with data center operations, particularly their reliance on substantial quantities of fossil fuels for ensuring uninterrupted service.
Initially, Secaucus Mayor Michael Gonnelli attributed the accident to a "computer glitch," a phrase that resonated with the digital nature of the facility. He conveyed to local news outlets that the data center, operational since 2001, had an unblemished record, never having experienced such an issue before. This initial explanation, however, contrasted with the subsequent statement from Equinix, a global leader in data center and interconnection services, which took responsibility for the incident. In a communication to Fortune, Equinix clarified that the spill was caused by "two broken valves" that were part of the routine filtration process for the diesel fuel. The company expressed regret for the incident and the concern it caused the community, adding that it was in the process of finalizing a comprehensive incident response report aimed at preventing any recurrence. The discrepancy between the initial "computer glitch" and the "broken valves" explanation highlights the complexity of industrial accidents and the need for thorough investigation to ascertain root causes.
This Secaucus spill is not an isolated event but rather the latest episode contributing to what many are calling data centers’ growing "PR problem." As the construction and operation of data centers accelerate globally, fueled by the explosive growth of AI and cloud computing, so too does public scrutiny and opposition. Concerns about their massive energy consumption, water usage, and potential environmental hazards are snowballing, with anxieties frequently materializing into tangible incidents. For instance, just last July, officials in Cheyenne, Wyoming, traced a rare bacterium contaminating its wastewater treatment facility back to a nearby 715,000-square-foot Meta data center, illustrating the diverse range of environmental challenges posed by these facilities.
Diesel spills from data centers, while less frequent than those from other industrial sectors, are not unprecedented. Records from the National Response Center (NRC) of the U.S. Coast Guard show at least 10 data center-related diesel spills over the past two decades. New Jersey, in particular, has seen its share. In 2017, the state witnessed a 600-gallon fuel leak from a data center that infiltrated storm drains in the Clifton region. More recently, in 2022, another Equinix data center, this one in North Bergen, spilled an estimated 1,800 gallons of diesel. The current Secaucus incident, at 5,000 gallons, marks New Jersey’s largest data center-related spill to date, nearly tripling the volume of its previous record. Globally, the largest known data center diesel spill occurred in 2008 at an AT&T plant in Bothell, Washington, where 15,000 gallons of fuel leaked, underscoring the potential for even larger-scale incidents.
To provide crucial perspective, these data center incidents, while concerning, "pale in comparison" to the sheer magnitude and frequency of oil spills across other industries. According to U.S. Department of Transportation data, there have been over 4,900 total oil spills in the U.S. since 2010. Of these, approximately 14% involved diesel fuel, but the vast majority were crude oil spills stemming from transportation, drilling, and extraction activities. The volume of these larger spills is staggering, often exceeding 134 million gallons annually, with major incidents averaging around 300,000 gallons. For example, the infamous Santa Barbara oil spill in 1969, a foundational event for the modern environmental movement, released over 3 million gallons of crude oil into the Pacific Ocean. This contextualization is vital to understanding the relative scale of data center-related spills within the broader landscape of environmental pollution.
However, the disproportionate public reaction to data center spills is illustrative of AI’s emergence as a new "environmental bogeyman" in the American consciousness. The 1970s saw the birth of a massive environmental movement, galvanized by events like the Santa Barbara spill, leading to the first Earth Day where 20 million people protested. Today, while traditional environmental threats persist, AI and its infrastructure have captured a significant share of public worry. A recent poll released by the Associated Press–NORC Center for Public Affairs Research revealed that 53% of Americans express concerns about the environmental impacts of AI. This figure significantly overshadows anxieties about other carbon-intensive sectors, such as air travel (28%), cryptocurrency (28%), and even meat production (32%). This is particularly striking given that both meat production and aviation currently have demonstrably higher rates of carbon emissions compared to data centers.
The current record-high price of diesel fuel, reaching $6.39 per gallon amid geopolitical tensions like the ongoing Iran war, may also be contributing to the public’s heightened sensitivity. When a critical and expensive resource like diesel is leaked, it can resonate more deeply with an American public already feeling the pinch at the pump, amplifying concerns beyond the sheer environmental volume.
Michael Greenstone, director of the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute, which collaborated on the AP-NORC survey, offers insight into this phenomenon. He attributes some of the growing public ire toward data centers, despite other industries having a larger actual environmental footprint, to the relative newness and perceived unknown impacts of AI. "We’re undertaking a massive experiment in real time, and I don’t think there’ll be any putting the milk back in the bottle," Greenstone told the Associated Press. "Change is scary, and I think some of that is being reflected here." This sentiment captures the public’s apprehension about a rapidly evolving technology whose long-term environmental consequences are still being understood.
At the heart of data centers’ environmental dilemma is their fundamental "diesel problem." Diesel fuel plays a critical and often indispensable role in ensuring the continuous operation of these facilities. It is the primary energy source for backup generators, which are essential for maintaining uptime in the event of power outages. This reliance on diesel has become an even greater concern amidst data centers’ increasing dependence on an often fragile and overstretched electrical grid system. For data center operators, any halt in operations can translate into catastrophic financial losses, potentially reaching $1 million per hour for outages, and can also result in breaches of stringent service level agreements (SLAs) with clients. The consequences of data center downtime extend beyond financial penalties, impacting critical public services, as evidenced by past incidents linked to cancelled flights and the rerouting of emergency vehicles to hospitals during major outages. The industry strives for extreme reliability; while unreliable data centers might be offline for about 28 hours a year, the most robust Tier IV facilities aim for less than 26 minutes of downtime annually, a feat often achieved through redundant systems powered by diesel generators.
Consequently, the buildout of these diesel fuel generators has soared in parallel with the explosion of data center construction. A March report from the policy organization Better Data Center Project revealed a staggering trend: from 2018 to 2024, data center diesel generator capacity more than tripled, escalating from 20 gigawatts (GW) to an astonishing 55 GW. To put this into perspective, the state of Virginia, a global hub for data centers, had permitted over 10,500 generator units for data centers by the end of last year. The total power usage of these generators equates to roughly 20 million U.S. homes, a figure that dwarfs Virginia’s actual residential power needs, as the entire state only has about 3.9 million homes. This concentration of backup power capacity underscores the immense scale of energy infrastructure dedicated solely to maintaining data center uptime.
Another contributing factor to the environmental risk is the strategic location of many data centers. Due to the intensive cooling requirements for their vast arrays of servers, these campuses are frequently situated near large bodies of water. While this proximity offers an efficient means of cooling, it inherently increases the risk of environmental hazards, such as oil spills, directly impacting sensitive aquatic ecosystems. Although the Better Data Center Project noted that most diesel leaks are relatively small, typically less than 200 gallons, the cumulative effect and the potential for larger incidents, as seen in Secaucus, remain a significant concern.
In response to these growing challenges, the Better Data Center Project has put forth several recommendations to mitigate the environmental impact of data centers. These include advocating for diesel generators to meet stringent emission standards, promoting a broader industry-wide transition away from diesel towards cleaner, battery-powered generators, and pushing for structural improvements to the electrical grid itself. Strengthening grid infrastructure would inherently reduce the risk of power outages, thereby lessening the reliance on fossil fuel-powered backups in the first place.
"This field is evolving at a rapid pace and many aspects of data center development remain in flux," the Better Data Center Project cautioned in its March report. "However, the magnitude of diesel generator capacity already permitted and installed means that some communities will experience harm even if generators are used only for testing, maintenance, and rare emergency outages." This statement encapsulates the urgent need for proactive measures and sustainable practices as the world increasingly relies on the digital infrastructure that underpins our AI-driven future. The Secaucus spill serves as a stark reminder that as we push the boundaries of technological innovation, we must simultaneously uphold our commitment to environmental stewardship, ensuring that the benefits of AI do not come at an unacceptable ecological cost.
