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The Ypsilanti Township Board of Trustees<\/a> approved a resolution<\/a> Wednesday that could prevent the University of Michigan from drawing the 500,000 gallons<\/a> of water needed to operate the $1.25 billion data center it plans to construct in partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory<\/a>.<\/p>\n The data center has been met with opposition<\/a> from township residents and members of the University community due to concerns over its potential negative impacts<\/a> on the electrical grid and environment, as well as its confirmed<\/a> use in the development of nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n The University is exempt<\/a> from local zoning laws under Michigan\u2019s Constitution<\/a>, meaning it could still build its data center even if the township were to pass a moratorium on building data centers. However, the township could obstruct the project by passing a moratorium on providing water to data centers, which they need to cool servers.\u00a0<\/p>\n The board passed a resolution requesting the Ypsilanti Community Utilities Authority<\/a> place a water moratorium on hyperscale and mid-size data centers, as well as artificial intelligence computing facilities and \u201chigh-performance computational centers,\u201d the University\u2019s preferred term<\/a> for the facility. YCUA must approve the moratorium for it to take effect.\u00a0<\/p>\n