‘I’m doing it for our collective future’: PG County members rally against AI data centers
University of Maryland students and community organizers from Prince George’s County filled a classroom in Jimenez Hall last Wednesday to discuss concerns and raise awareness about the impact of potential data centers in the county.
“They are not concerned about us as individuals and how our livelihood will be impacted, how our air quality will be impacted, how our electric bills are impacted,” Taylor Frazier-McCollum, a community advocate for No Landover Data said.
Frazier-McCollum was a part of a panel hosted by 17 for Peace and Justice, this university’s only environmental justice organization, in partnership with the “No Landover Data Center” movement and the Washington branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
A data center is a physical structure that stores and processes large amounts of data. Sophie Bose, a senior environmental science and policy and Spanish double major and member of 17FPJ, said that “hyperscale data centers are primarily used to train large generative [artificial intelligence] models.”
The main ones benefiting are billionaires, Bose said. Lerner Enterprises, Brightseat’s developing company, is owned by Maryland’s richest family, who are valued at $5.7 billion, according to the Baltimore Sun.
“They lose nothing…they’re trying to get the most out of the site that they can financially and increase their wealth,” Frazier-McCollum said.
In 2024, Lerner Enterprises gained approval from the Prince George’s County Planning Board to build Brightseat Tech Park at the old Landover mall site. The move did not require approval from the County Council, according to Afro News.
Though it’s unknown how the Landover data center will be used, Selah Goodson Bell, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s D.C. branch and panelist, said companies like Lerner develop data centers to rent to AI companies, which store data for software such as facial recognition in the facility.
In January, Prince George’s County announced a $6 million investment in school safety technology which includes surveillance AI, according to WUSA9. Additionally, the county plans to cut $150 million in the 2026 school year.
Bell criticized the investment. “Our county is trying to give AI $6 million while also cutting back on about 100 staff positions at PG County Public Schools,” he said. He also referenced the county cutting $1.5 million from summer youth enrichment programs.
In an interview with Capital News Service, Prince George’s County Council Member Wala Blegay said that PG County is interested in data centers because they generate revenue. But in practice, “at least 10 states already lose more than $100 million per year in tax revenue to data centers,” according to Good Jobs First, a non-profit organization that tracks corporate misconduct.
Hyperscale data centers can “consume up to 5 million gallons per day” which is equivalent to “the water use of a town populated by 10,000 to 50,000 people,” according to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute
The increased demand would come at a cost to residents, as 100% of PG county residents are currently affected by moderate drought conditions. This results in “some damage to crops and pastures, some water shortages,” according to data from the Lebanon Daily News.
Last summer, Frazier-McCollum started the “Stop Data Center at Former Landover Mall Site” petition to amplify the concerns of Landover residents.
“I’m doing it for our collective future,” Frazier-McCollum said.
In two months, Frazier-McCollum garnered 100 signatures; now she’s almost at 23,000.
By September 2025, County Executive Aisha Braveboy passed an executive order pausing all data center development in PG County.
Brightseat’s presence also reflects a long history of environmental racism in Prince George’s County, said Staci Hartwell, an environmental advocate and chair of the NAACP’s Prince George’s County chapter. “I used to call [PG County] a toilet because Washington, D.C. brings its poo and dumps it here.”
Hartwell said that large-scale data centers would significantly add to the high pollution PG County suffers from. No federal funding is coming “to clean up a predominantly Black and brown community,” she said.
Students will be affected if development continues, Frazier-McCollum said. “So we don’t want your electric bills to increase…because now you have to make a decision between buying your books and paying your energy bills,” she said.
Hartwell encouraged students to vote in the upcoming primary elections on June 23. “The vote is going to make the difference…if we can influence our elected and appointed, then game over,” she said.
Kwasi Brooks, who graduated from this university last semester with a master’s in data science, said it’s important for students to channel anger into a call for action.
“That’s why I’m here today,” Brooks said during the meeting, “We’re gonna raise hell here. And if you just hold on to that energy and don’t let it stagnate… It will become action, and that action will always lead to better results.”