Permits Renewals at TeraWulf’s Planned AI Data Center Site

Written By No Data Center FLX .

Easy actions you can take to help stop them.

Two Permits Are Up For Renewal

A Water Withdrawal permit and a SPDES permit. A Water Withdrawal permit sanctions a particular amount of water per year to be taken out of Cayuga Lake.A SPDES permit (State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) is supposed to constrain the type and amount of pollutants leaving a site via water discharge or stormwater runoff.

Why Do These Permits Matter?

When the permits garnered attention in October 2025, it appeared to be unrelated to the data center project. Now with additional information, it’s clear that stopping these permits from getting approved is important.

The applicants of the permits are a company that owns the site and is a subsidiary of TeraWulf, Cayuga Operating Company. While it is illegal to transfer the permits to TeraWulf, the site for these permits are at the planned location of the AI data center. The approval of these permits could make it easier for TeraWulf to get approval for similar permits in the future.

These Permits Are Not Strict Enough

These permits are not strict enough in regards to which discharged chemicals the applicant is required to track. They need to be amended to properly protect our lake from a greater discharge of harmful chemicals.

The pollution permit is based on the old coal plant SPDES permit and is entirely inadequate to protect the public from dangerous pollutants added to the lake from leaching toxins from the huge coal ash landfills on the property and what will be large scale construction excavations over many years.

More About the Permits

The permits allow for intake and discharge of 1.008 Million Gallons Per Day.

The SPDES permit does not include testing discharge for Lithium, Thallium, Lead, Beryllium, Cobalt, Molybdenum Chromium ( +6 oxidation state) or Radium (226 and 228 isotopes).

The SPDES permit does allows water discharge up to 98.1°F. According to Cayuga Nature Center, Cayuga Lake surface temperatures range from around 60 to 81°F, with bottom temperatures of 39-49°F.

What You Can Do

Submit a comment to the DEC about these permits by January 12th at 5pm.

Click the links that will redirect to Action Network pages where you can easily submit pre-written comments for each permit.

Make a comment on the Water Withdrawal Permit: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/no-water-withdrawal-permit-renewal-given-ai-data-centers-misleading-application?source=direct_link&fbclid=IwY2xjawPNTElleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFEZklKVEhkZGlQQUxaWEY3c3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHo-4zoaFpYoImmcC5apquA2fyqwj12kz49sC8h0tdHRNVkL_xssxgWEPgv4u_aem_Qs2eQf2X2ijcE88irhaRtQ

Make a comment on the SPDES permit: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/no-spdes-permit-renewal-for-ai-data-centers-misleading-application?source=direct_link&fbclid=IwY2xjawPNTHhleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFEZklKVEhkZGlQQUxaWEY3c3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHsjAAeZK_pEiKgeL74WESwXtpyZlhdlRVr0V4xUNsOqnLLyNEMU3YCwMuoHB_aem_QZAIjMiEOS3FIooemr4yFw

Or write your own comments for additional impact! Here’s to key technical materials from CLEAN (Cayuga Lake Environmental Action Now): https://cleancayugalake.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/CLEAN_comments_on_Cayuga_Operating_draft_water_withdrawal_permit_and_draft_SPDES_permit.pdf?fbclid=IwY2xjawPNTKlleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFEZklKVEhkZGlQQUxaWEY3c3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHmGUZE0lXjrI48EwL9RDY1XKK8P78qf4W57TRzKV_yF9RKDyMCaAS5UcSpPw_aem_4vgxqy_QIFrQJ58OsHYxDw

To send a comment independently, email it to DEP.R7@dec.ny.gov and jonathan.stercho@dec.ny.gov

It takes Just a Few Minutes To Make a Comment. Together our comments can make a crucial difference in determining what happens with the retired coal plant site, the proposed data center, and our lake water.

Sources

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