A vacant apartment building along Route 440 in Hopelawn is being converted into supportive housing for residents with disabilities and high medical needs. A closing is expected in July.
Kenilworth Data Center Tensions Boil Over Following a Warning of Additional Pollution
A Kean University expert told Kenilworth officials that powering CoreWeave's data center will worsen pollution linked to cancer and heart disease.
Kenilworth Municipal Building, August 2026. (The Central Jerseyan)
Editor’s note: The Central Jerseyan is free to read and supported by advertising. If you value this kind of local reporting and want to help sustain it, you can become a citizen supporter on Patreon. Your contribution helps fund continued coverage of local government, schools, and community issues.
Chris Howell | August 22, 2026
Tensions over a planned data center in Kenilworth reached new heights this week after an expert warned of increased pollution.
The borough’s Aug. 19 Mayor and Council meeting ended in chaos, with a resident accusing the council of “public endangerment,” calling for their arrest, and warning of legal action if they did not end the CoreWeave data center project or resign. Video of the meeting shows the Mayor and Council getting up and leaving as the room erupted in shouting and chanting.
The outburst came after Thomas Ikeda, director of the Center for the Urban Environment at Kean University’s John S. Watson Institute for Urban Policy and Research, told the council during public comment that running the borough’s existing power plant around the clock to help feed CoreWeave’s data center will significantly worsen air pollution already linked to cancer and heart disease in the surrounding community.
Ikeda focused not on the data center itself, but on infrastructure that predates it. The Kenilworth Energy Facility is a natural gas cogeneration plant that has operated on the site since 1989.
DON’T LET AN ALGORITHM DECIDE YOUR NEWS
Sign up for The Central Jerseyan Newsletter for independent local news and events every week.
The plant, owned by EF Kenilworth LLC, a subsidiary of Atlantic Power Corporation, at 2000 Galloping Hill Rd., is classified by state regulators as a “major” source of air pollution. CoreWeave intends to use the roughly 29-megawatt plant as a base power source for its data center, Ikeda told the council.
That, Ikeda said, is the problem.
“At the Center for the Urban Environment, we try to support environmental justice communities, which Union County and many of these neighborhoods are, with technical support,” Ikeda told the council.
Citing EPA estimates, he said the plant currently emits about five tons of fine particulate matter, 76 tons of nitrogen oxides and two tons of sulfur oxides annually, while running at only an estimated 50 to 60 percent of its full capacity.
“These are all poisonous toxins that cause cancer and other cardiovascular disease,” Ikeda said.
The concern is what happens once CoreWeave’s data center comes online. Because it’s designed to run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Ikeda said, the plant will likely need to run much closer to full capacity to help supply it.
“It will be running this facility likely also at near full capacity, so these emissions will likely increase, maybe not double, but significantly increase,” he said.
Ikeda also warned about a second, separate source of pollution, the at least 31 diesel generators planned for the data center’s first phase, a figure confirmed at other public meetings this year. Diesel exhaust contains more than 40 known cancer-causing substances and has been classified as carcinogenic to humans by the World Health Organization’s cancer research arm since 2012, he said.
Ikeda cited a New Jersey estimate that on-road diesel emissions alone caused 330 premature deaths and $3.75 billion in public health damages statewide in 2023.
“The particulate matter from diesel is so fine it can penetrate the deepest parts of your lungs and enter your bloodstream directly,” Ikeda said, “and is particularly dangerous to people who are sensitive to air pollution, elderly, and children.”
Most residents who have addressed the project at recent meetings have focused on noise, water use and traffic. Ikeda’s testimony brought a different, more technical argument centered on a plant that has operated on the site since 1989.
The council did not respond to Ikeda’s warning during the meeting. Neither Kenilworth officials nor CoreWeave have addressed the emissions question publicly, and it remains unclear whether an updated air-quality review of the Kenilworth Energy Facility has been conducted, or is planned, as part of the data center’s approval process.
Editor’s note: The Central Jerseyan is free to read and supported by advertising. If you value this kind of local reporting and want to help sustain it, you can become a citizen supporter on Patreon. Your contribution helps fund continued coverage of local government, schools, and community issues.
More Headlines
Edison Council Rejects 50-Year Fiber Deal After Learning Company Serves Data Centers
Four council members voted no on a right-of-way agreement after the township's own attorney described the company as a provider of high-speed connectivity for stock exchanges, AI data centers, and large enterprises — not a consumer broadband provider.
Rahway Opens Wheatena Dog Park With Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony
Rahway celebrated the grand opening of Wheatena Dog Park, the city’s first dog park, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony featuring Mayor Raymond Giacobbe Jr., Senate President Nick Scutari, and county officials.