Set foot in Dowagiac, a sleepy town in Southwest Michigan, and you’ll immediately notice two things that stand out in the otherwise rustic surroundings: a massive 30 megawatt data center — and the constant ear piercing noise it emits.
No one knows this better than the Marjorie and Billy Finn, a married couple who live right in front of the sprawling complex. The constant hum is like a jet engine, Billy Finn told MLive. Using his own decibel meter in a video taken by the newspaper, he measures the noise levels from his porch, which hover around 60 decibels. That’s roughly the equivalent of a noisy dishwasher, except that sound is a constant presence everywhere outside.
“It’s like we’re living in a prison in our own yard, in our own house,” Marjorie Finn told the outlet, adding that she can even hear the hum while she tries to sleep at night.
Two other residents are suing the data center, Hyperscale Data, saying that their homes are being “physically invaded” by the “excessive noise” from its facility, MLive reported. (The Finns were approached to join the lawsuit but declined.) It doesn’t matter if you close the windows or turn up the TV — you’ll hear its constant screeching anyway, the suit alleges.
