Waterford ― At Monday night’s Representative Town Meeting, residents and unionized construction workers disagreed over a proposal by NE Edge LLC to build a data center on the Millstone Power Station property.

While residents reiterated their concerns about noise and the impact on the environment, union workers applauded the jobs it would create.

William McCoy, attorney for NE Edge, also provided a status update on the project.

First Selectman Rob Brule signed an agreement in March that calls for NE Edge to pay the town $231 million over 30 years to construct two two-story data center buildings, supplied with energy from Millstone, that would provide 1.5 million square feet of storage for cloud and data centers.

Keith Brothers, who heads the Connecticut State Building Trades Council, told the RTM on Monday that his union has signed an agreement with NE Edge in which it has agreed to use local union workers and contractors.

“This project is going to generate over a million man hours for the construction industry,” added Joseph Toner, the union’s executive director. “One out of every four construction workers on this project is going to be from Waterford.”

Toner said noise concerns about the project are disingenuous because “every project is completely different.”

“Let’s do the due diligence on the studies, and then everyone will go and look at that,” he said.

While residents acknowledged the importance of construction jobs, they were not convinced.

“This is not, and I repeat not, about temporary union jobs. This is about the health and safety of the residents of Waterford,” resident Lynn MacMorrow said.

“If you go forward with this, you need to understand that it’s going to impact the hearing of everyone around us,” said Judith Leary.

She claimed that data center noise would radiate 2.5 miles from the facility.

McCoy refuted Leary’s claims, cited misinformation over the project.

“Concerns matter, but concerns unsupported by fact are just concerns,” he said.

McCoy would not deny that there are noisy data centers, but claimed they are a result of poor design.

“You spend enough money, you can make that building quiet. And ultimately that’s what we’re committed to doing because that’s the standard we have. We can’t build a building that puts out 95 decibels. It’s not proper under the host fee agreement,” he said.

McCoy said he is committed to having further discussions with residents but pointed out that it will be the town’s land use boards that will decide on the design of the buildings.

The town’s ability to oversee the project still hinges on a decision currently before the Connecticut Siting Council that would allow Millstone owner Dominion Energy nuclear Connecticut, Inc., to make room for the data center.

McCoy said he is prepared to come back to the RTM in December with a “reasonably solid plan.”

d.drainville@theday.com