For years, communities downstream of Chemours have experienced high levels of PFAS (forever chemicals) in their drinking water. Now, North Carolina is seeing a rapid expansion in data centers. According to NRDC, The AI boom isn’t just increasing the demand for data centers, but it’s also increasing demand for PFAS manufactured by companies like Chemours. How?

Chemours, a spin-off of DuPont, is a major manufacturer of PFAS (aka toxic “forever chemicals”), and it is betting big on data centers. PFAS can be used in data centers for cooling, fire suppression, and in the production of semiconductors and other electronic components. Unfortunately, the entire life cycle of the PFAS used in data centers puts human and environmental health at risk, from the manufacturing of PFAS to their use on-site at data centers and their eventual disposal.  

Report from Corinne Bell, Senior Attorney, Environmental Health. Coauthored with Hope Taylor, former Executive Director of Clean Water for North Carolina

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