05/23/2026
First Erin Brockovich movie, now this.
Erin Brockovich is back, and this time she's coming for the AI industry, calling out Big Tech's data center boom as the next great environmental shakedown of American communities. She launched a self-reporting map at brockovichdatacenter.com, and within a week over 1,600 residents had filed complaints spanning noise pollution, skyrocketing utility bills, and serious water depletion concerns. The pattern she's seeing looks awfully familiar: corporations dangle promises of jobs and tax revenue, municipalities wave projects through with minimal environmental review, and the people who actually live there get left holding the bag.
The water issue alone should be setting off alarm bells. Data centers gulp enormous amounts of water to keep their cooling systems running, and some are being planted directly above critical aquifers. As Brockovich put it plainly, "Wasting heat is wasting water. We can't afford either." The technology to capture and reuse that waste heat already exists, it's just not being required. That's a policy failure, not a tech failure.
A recent Gallup poll found that 7 in 10 Americans oppose data centers being built in their communities, with many saying they'd rather live near a nuclear plant. Brockovich's demand is straightforward: if Big Tech is going to drain public water supplies and jack up utility bills, the public deserves full transparency. "If you're using public resources, the public has a right to know how much. Sunlight is the best disinfectant."
