The Data Center Accountability & Citizen Protection Act

The Data Center Accountability & Citizen Protection Act (HB 983) puts Ohio communities back in charge of the data centers moving into their neighborhoods. It gives residents a direct ballot vote, holds these facilities to real air- and water-safety standards, and ends the secret deals and tax giveaways that leave local families paying the price.

What HB 983 does

1. Gives citizens the vote. Requires a citizen ballot vote before any data center or associated power facility expecting 1 megawatt of electrical load can be approved to be built — for every city, village, or township located within 5 miles of the perimeter of the proposed facility.
2. Sets real safety standards. Requires the Ohio EPA to set air-emissions and wastewater safety standards for all non-regulated metals, glycols, and organics — including PFAS (“forever chemicals”) — that are used in data centers and their power-generating facilities.
3. Closed-loop cooling & energy independence. Requires all new, voter-approved data centers to use closed-loop cooling systems and to build their own power facility to stay energy-independent, off the grid.
4. Treat the water they use. Requires all new, voter-approved data centers to build attached water-treatment facilities with the capacity to treat the entire volume of discharge wastewater they produce, prior to discharge.
5. Existing centers must catch up — water. Requires all existing data centers to build attached water-treatment facilities able to clean whatever amount of discharge wastewater they produce, within 18 months of the act taking effect.
6. Existing centers must catch up — air. Requires all existing data centers and associated power facilities to comply with the newly established air-emissions standards within 18 months of the act taking effect.
7. Real penalties, paid locally. Establishes daily penalties — paid to the affected city, village, or township — for any data center that violates emissions and wastewater-discharge requirements, and sets a 30-day limit to come into compliance or the facility is subject to removal of its license to operate.
8. No tax giveaways. Prohibits all property-tax abatements.
9. Ends the secret deals. Prohibits future and currently allowed NDAs for development and supply agreements related to a data center or associated power-generating facility, and protects local officials from being penalized for disclosing information about any such agreement.
10. Closes the revolving door. Prohibits any person who participated in drafting or revising Ohio Power Siting Board rules or Public Utilities Commission rules from representing a data center applicant for 3 years.
11. Transparency on the EPA’s website. Requires EPA discharge water and emissions requirements and test results from data centers to be posted on the EPA’s website.

Why it matters

Data centers are among the largest new consumers of Ohio’s power and water, and they are being sited faster than communities can weigh in. HB 983 restores the balance: no massive facility gets built next to your town without your vote, no chemical goes into your air or water without a standard, and no deal gets cut behind a non-disclosure agreement that keeps residents in the dark. It is accountability first — and citizens first.

How you can help

Add your name to get alerts the moment HB 983 moves, a hearing is scheduled, or your action is needed. When Ohioans show up in numbers, lawmakers listen.

Support HB 983Help us pass the Data Center Accountability & Citizen Protection ActYour donation funds the organizing and grassroots “political” pressure it takes to move HB 983 through the statehouse and into law.Donate to implement this legislation →

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