"Developers plan to build six sprawling data center campuses in Archbald, Pennsylvania, covering about 14 percent of the town’s land. Residents are fighting back."
"ARCHBALD, Pa. — Tim Bachak would look out to his backyard most evenings to see wildlife emerging from the forest of birch, maple and oak trees hugging his property.
He regularly spotted black bears, deer and coyotes. Owls would hoot and turkeys would scurry. Bachak, a 43-year-old public school teacher, saw the activity as a sign this former coal town had recharged from its polluting past.
Then last month, Bachak woke up to the sound of chainsaws. Workers were cutting down the forest, about 180 acres of trees, to make way for a massive data center.
“Those animals now have no place to go,” Bachak said on a recent afternoon as he looked out at a vast landscape of tree stumps. “It’s disgusting. … Why are they putting these things near us, near our schools and near our parks?”"
Tim Craig reports for the Washington Post April 26, 2026.
