St. Louis County Executive Sam Page asked the County Council on Oct. 20 to grant the Department of Public Health (DPH) new authority to regulate data centers across the entire county, including incorporated cities like Chesterfield.

The request, added to the Council's amended agenda as a late item, would let DPH set and enforce health and environmental rules for data centers in municipalities and unincorporated areas alike. That scope goes well beyond the separate zoning regulations the county Planning Commission has been developing, which apply only to unincorporated St. Louis County.

Page's Oct. 19 letter to Council Chair Rita Heard Days asked members to work with DPH and the County Counselor's Office to draft the legislation. The letter cited noise and environmental impacts as reasons for the new rules.

"Noise can impact someone's ability to sleep, it can impact stress and dramatically impact quality of life, and data centers present a unique challenge … they run around the clock," Page told First Alert 4 on Oct. 20.

Page said data center noise is not captured well by typical standards, so new legislation is needed to regulate it properly, according to First Alert 4.

DPH Director Dr. Kanika Cunningham outlined the request in an attached Oct. 16 letter. She asked for legislation that would require health reviews and impact assessments before new data centers or major expansions are approved. The letter also called for ongoing inspections, complaint investigations and enforcement measures.

Cunningham wrote that the rules should apply countywide as the "uniform minimum public health requirements" for all of St. Louis County. Her letter stated that environmental exposures do not stop at city limits and that residents throughout the county deserve consistent protections.

Two Separate Regulatory Tracks

The DPH request is separate from the zoning regulations the Planning Commission has been working on since earlier this year. Those zoning rules would create a four-tier system classifying data centers by size and energy use. The largest facilities, defined as 50 megawatts or more or 250,000 square feet or more, would need to sit at least 500 feet from residential areas. The zoning rules also set standards for energy use, water consumption and noise. Those regulations apply only to unincorporated county land. Individual municipalities would still set their own zoning.

The DPH proposal, by contrast, would give the county health department enforcement power inside incorporated cities. For Chesterfield and other west county municipalities, that could mean county-level health oversight of data center operations even where a city controls its own zoning.

Whether the Council took formal action on the DPH request at the Oct. 20 meeting has not been confirmed in public records. The Council’s Oct. 27 agenda lists the DPH authorization request under “Introduction of Bills.” The agenda listing does not establish that legislation has been introduced or adopted.

As of May, no data center proposals were pending before the county, according to West Newsmagazine. The Council has not announced a date for introducing the DPH legislation.