Residents question noise impacts of OpenAI data center I Exclusive

Sept. 7, 2026, 5:06 a.m. ET

• Effingham County residents raise concerns over quality of life, noise pollution from planned data center
• One of the primary concerns from residents is potential noise pollution from the facility and its cooling systems.
• County officials and OpenAI state that mitigation measures, including battery backups and vegetative buffers, will be used to limit noise.

Megan Burchette Newton was on vacation visiting friends in Americus when she learned residents who live there were fighting a planned data center. She wondered how she would handle the news should a data center be built near her home in Effingham County.

Then, it happened.

The following day, July 22, while scrolling through social media, Megan came across a post sharing details about OpenAI's plans to invest $20 billion into a new data center in Rincon - just a few hundred yards from her childhood home.

"I was consumed by it for about two weeks," said Megan. "Consumed with stress and worries and uncertainty and just a lot of questions."

Noise pollution

The Savannah Gateway Industrial Hub is a 2,600-acre master planned park, home to Knight Transportation, Belgium-based company Aertssen Logistics and shipping giant DHL among others. With several buildings available for leasing, Megan knew the hub would continue to attract more industry - she never expected it to be a data center.