The Superfund connection
The Sentinel data center site at 13 S. Bacton Hill Road in East Whiteland Township, Chester County, is the former Foote Mineral Company lithium ore-processing facility, which closed in 1991 and underwent EPA Superfund cleanup completed in 2010. The roughly 100-acre parcel was acquired by Green Fig Land LLC, with Sentinel Data Centers joining later.
Despite the Superfund history, the developer received planning commission approval in 2024 for an initial design. What came next was bigger.
61 percent bigger than approved
The developer submitted an amended plan increasing building size by roughly 61 percent to over 1.6 million square feet. The potential power draw grew to between 100 and 600 MW. The expansion was proposed without a new round of public review proportional to the change in scale.
Hundreds show up
A February 2026 Planning Commission meeting drew so many people it exceeded the room's capacity, forcing officials to postpone and reschedule at a larger venue -- Penn State Great Valley's campus. Protesters gathered outside the rescheduled March 9 meeting with signs, and attendees filled the auditorium.
Residents voiced concerns about noise, health impacts, property values, water consumption, and energy demand. At the March meeting, the Planning Commission stopped short of approving the project, instead sending it back for additional investigation of resident concerns. The Board of Supervisors will make the final call.
A pattern across Chester County
East Whiteland is one of at least three Chester County townships -- along with East Vincent (Pennhurst) and Limerick (Project Laurel) -- facing proposed data centers in rapid succession. Residents describe a sense of being overwhelmed by the pace and scale of proposals, with limited municipal resources to evaluate them.
Sen. Katie Muth's proposed statewide moratorium would apply to all of these projects.