Data center company that spilled fuel into the Meadowlands plans another center next door

The company operating a data center that spilled 5,000 gallons of diesel fuel in the New Jersey Meadowlands last week is working to build a new data center right next door.

Equinix, a data center company based in California, has started work on a new data center in Secaucus. The planned data center, which the company calls NY10, will be the company’s fifth colocation data center in the town.

Permit applications submitted by Equinix to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection indicate the NY10 data center will be four stories tall and will also have a new electrical substation built to accompany it. The facility is being built in place of an existing building, which will be partially demolished to make room for the new project.

Equinix said in a statement to Gothamist that infrastructure improvements are already underway at the site, and that construction of the new building is expected to begin next year. The company expects NY10 to be online by 2030.

Gothamist saw a bustle of activity at the site on Thursday, with signs directing construction traffic and workers in hard hats and safety vests. Downstream from the site, containment booms were still laid across the creek that the fuel spilled into, though no active cleanup work was seen. The smell of diesel fuel lingered in the air.

The NY10 project has been in development for years. Public records show the company has been in talks with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection for the new data center since at least 2019. The department in December granted Equinix a key permit for construction in a flood hazard area, allowing the NY10 project to move forward.

The DEP declined to comment when asked if last week’s spill has affected how the department views the NY10 project, or how the department approaches permitting for data centers.

Equinix may still need more permits and approvals to complete the NY10 project. Data centers often require air pollution permits to cover on-site emissions from backup generators or refrigeration systems. Larry Hajna, a DEP spokesperson, said the company has not yet sought any other permits from the department.

The company said in its statement that it continues to work with local, state and federal authorities to secure more permits over the course of the project.

Equinix, which took in more than $2.6 billion of revenue in the second quarter of this year, currently has 10 data centers in the New York City metro area, according to the company's website. Besides the five in Secaucus, there’s one in Lower Manhattan, one in Newark, one in North Bergen, one in Carteret and one in Elmsford. Equinix operates 282 data centers globally, spread across 36 countries, according to financial filings.

But for the company’s global footprint, Equinix arguably wasn’t well-known in New Jersey until last week’s spill, in which a pair of faulty valves sent 5,000 gallons of diesel fuel leaking out of a storage tank at the NY2 data center and into an unnamed tributary near Anderson Creek that is next to the facility. The NY10 facility is planned to be immediately adjacent to NY2.

Equinix said in its statement that it would apply any lessons learned from the spill to its operations at all of its data centers, both existing and planned.

The DEP has said the leak was contained before it was able to spread to the Hackensack River or surrounding wetlands. Hackensack Riverkeeper Bill Sheehan said he remains skeptical that the leak did not harm the local ecosystem.

The incident has become the latest flashpoint in the debate over the facilities. Activists around the Garden State have spent months calling on Gov. Mikie Sherrill to place a moratorium on new data center development in the state, similar to what New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has done.

Sherrill has so far declined to take that step. In the meantime, nearly 100 cities and towns around New Jersey have enacted local bans on data centers.

Secaucus is not one of those places. Data centers have stood alongside warehouses and other businesses in the town for decades, and Mayor Michael Gonnelli last month wrote in the town newsletter that data centers are good for the town because they bring in strong property tax revenue while demanding little of local services.

But his feelings on data centers appear to be shifting after the spill. Gonnelli told Gothamist on Tuesday he was upset and concerned by the spill, and he wanted to see state authorities penalize Equinix.

“I want to go after them as best we can,” Gonnelli said at the time.

In a letter sent Wednesday to the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which regulates development in the Meadowlands, Gonnelli said Secaucus wanted to pause new data center applications.

The NJSEA has invited Gonnelli to meet about the issue next week, according to Alexa Willbergh, a spokesperson for the authority.

But Secaucus opted out of the NJSEA’s master plan in 2015, and since then local approval of new data centers has fallen to the town. Willbergh said Secaucus has considered four data center applications in the time since.

“Secaucus issued approvals for two of the data center applications and two are still pending before the town,” Willbergh said. “It is our understanding that Secaucus has not issued an approval for the Equinix NY10 facility at this time.”

Gonnelli did not respond to requests for comment from Gothamist on Thursday. Equinix did not immediately respond when asked about local approval for the NY10 project.