Properties Affected by Contamination: EPA's Guidance on Superfund and Brownfield Sites as AI Data Centers

Superfund and Brownfield sites "may be strong potential candidates for reuse as data centers," the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, says, "due to their preexisting infrastructure, likely industrial zoning and proximity to energy lines." That is the conclusion of its guidance of January 2026, numbered EPA-540-S-26-001, and the guidance adds at once that "Local site conditions and applicable regulations will determine whether a site is suitable for this type of redevelopment."

The guidance calls its information introductory, written "for community stakeholders and potential developers." It was developed under Executive Order 14318, on accelerating federal permitting of data center infrastructure.

What the two kinds of site are

Both kinds of site include properties affected by environmental contamination, and the federal law behind them, known as CERCLA, defines them differently. Superfund sites, in the guidance's account, exist where hazardous substances, pollutants or contaminants were dumped, left out in the open or otherwise improperly managed. They include manufacturing facilities, processing plants, landfills and mining sites. The law gives EPA the authority to clean up contaminated sites, and requires the parties responsible to either do the cleanup or reimburse the government for it.

Brownfield sites are properties where the current or future use "is affected by real or perceived environmental contamination." EPA does not regulate their assessment and cleanup. It funds and assists "community-led efforts to revitalize and reuse brownfields," while "State and Tribal governments are responsible for establishing and enforcing cleanup standards" at those sites.

What a site needs

The guidance sets three conditions under the word "Importantly." Data centers must be compatible with site conditions, must have "easy access to infrastructural support including energy and fiberoptic cables," and must be compatible with all applicable local, state and federal regulations.

Its table of criteria then gets specific, and the first row is land. "A minimum of 100 acres is typically needed for a 100 mega-watt (MW) campus-style data center. Data centers generating fewer MW may be accommodated on smaller sites." More land is "usually desired" for power generation, substations, cooling and other uses.

On power, the table asks for "sufficient grid capacity, substation access, redundancy, and favorable tariffs," and says onsite generation and backup sources are often needed for an uninterrupted supply. Data centers, it adds, are often built "directly next to or together with substations or power plants." Their cooling may use "millions of gallons per MW per year," and access to a reclaimed or reliable water source is necessary.

Power and water stand in the same table as the cleanup. On such land a developer plans the power, the cooling and the remedy together, and the guidance leaves the fit to each site and its regulators.

The cleanup, the liability and the neighbors

The cleanup sets conditions of its own. A site "must be remediated as needed for safe reuse," and construction "may disturb capped soils, groundwater, or otherwise enable migration of contaminants." Where a remedy extracts and treats contaminated groundwater, the table sees a possible use, the "Potential for reuse of treated groundwater for data center cooling."

Redevelopment "may pose federal environmental liability concerns, including liability for contamination," the guidance says. Before anyone owns or operates a brownfield site, All Appropriate Inquiries, or AAI, must be conducted, which a footnote describes as evaluating a property's environmental conditions and assessing potential liability for any contamination.

The guidance names liability for contamination itself, and puts the inquiry before anyone owns or operates a brownfield site. Whether that inquiry has been done is a point a lender would want to see in writing.

The table also weighs the neighbors. Communities, it says, "may raise concerns about competition for water and energy" resources, about "increased noise and traffic," about the availability of housing, schools or emergency services, and about "impacts to air and water quality." And "Construction typically requires thousands of workers, but operations typically require a small number of skilled staff." The table presents its rows as "initial criteria to consider when evaluating whether a Superfund or Brownfield site can be redeveloped into a data center."