A New Jersey lawsuit alleges that noise from the DataOne datacenter is disrupting residents’ sleep and quality of life for up to a mile away. Jamie Banks, president of Quiet Communities, was quoted calling noise the “forgotten stepchild” of datacenter concerns and warning that low-frequency sounds can enter homes.

Concerns about data centers initially centered on their energy and water consumption, but as more have come online, residents’ gripes are increasingly about noise.

Jamie L. Banks, founder and president of Quiet Communities, supports New York’s one-year pause on large data center construction and urges officials to use the moratorium to study and regulate data center noise.

Quiet Communities, Inc. announced today that the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency unreasonably abdicated its responsibilities under the federal Noise Control Act of 1972, by failing to comply with mandatory obligations under the law for more than 40 years.