A major diesel spill from an Equinix data center in Secaucus has renewed environmental concerns around the rapid expansion of data centers in New Jersey.
The spill happened on September 11 at Equinix’s NY2 facility on Hartz Way. According to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, an estimated 5,000 gallons of No. 2 diesel fuel were released from a storage tank. A significant portion of the fuel entered a storm drain, and some of it reached a small tributary near Anderson Creek, which flows toward the Hackensack River through the Meadowlands.
Equinix later said its investigation found that two valves used in the fuel filtration system failed, causing the leak. The company said it stopped the leak, contacted emergency responders and hired Clean Harbors to carry out remediation work.
NJDEP and the U.S. Coast Guard have been monitoring the cleanup. State officials said protective booms were placed near the mouth of the creek and that, so far, they have not observed impacts to the Hackensack River or to wildlife. There are also no drinking-water intakes in the immediate area.
Cleanup crews have used vacuum trucks and absorbent materials to remove diesel from affected areas of the creek. NJDEP said the longer-term remediation will continue under environmental oversight.
The spill has attracted additional attention because the Hackensack River and surrounding Meadowlands are already the focus of major environmental restoration efforts. The Hackensack River was added to the federal Superfund list in 2022, making new contamination in connected waterways especially sensitive.
The incident has also become part of a broader debate over data center development in New Jersey.
Data centers require large amounts of electricity and typically rely on diesel-powered backup generators and fuel storage systems to keep operations running during outages. Environmental groups have argued that rapid expansion can add pressure to the electric grid and create new environmental risks, while supporters point to the economic and infrastructure benefits of the industry.
In Secaucus, that debate intensified after the spill. Mayor Mike Gonnelli has since called for a pause on additional data center applications in town while officials consider the environmental and infrastructure impacts of further development.
At the same time, Equinix is moving forward with plans for another data center next door. The proposed NY10 facility would be the company’s fifth colocation data center in Secaucus and would include a new electrical substation.
The company operates multiple data centers across the New York metropolitan area and hundreds worldwide, making the Secaucus spill a local environmental incident with much broader relevance as New Jersey continues to debate how and where future data centers should be built.
Sources: CBS New York, Gothamist, Secaucus Patch, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
By NJ RADAR Team