May 2, 2023
6 PM Press conference before Rally
Speakers:
Danica Roem, State Delegate
Bob Weir, newly elected PWC Gainesville Supervisor
Kyle Hart, Mid-Atlantic Program Manager, NPCA
QTS Open House
6 – 8:30 PM
Haymarket Hilton Garden Inn
PRESS RELEASE:
Industrialist QTS quietly changing the rules, isn’t trusted
Executive director says: “Wheeler’s favored contractor trying to erase history and evade the process.”
Haymarket, Virginia (May 1, 2023) – Chair Wheeler’s favorite data center industrialist, QTS, has floundered from PR debacle to pure deception in an effort to erase history and elude the process intended to protect citizens.
“While they’re not new to jamming industrial grade data centers into rural communities, QTS has clearly underestimated this community’s willingness to call out their lies and legal escape artistry,” Coalition executive director Elena Schlossberg said. “QTS CEO Chad Williams’ claims to be an ‘ally’ of national parks would be a sad joke, if it weren’t so deceptive and dangerous. But just like a fish rots from the head down, QTS’s tactics reflect the company’s flagrant manipulations of the truth from the top down.”
Schlossberg observed, “First off, numerous organizations from the National Parks Conservation Association to the Prince William County Historical Commission have opposed QTS’s data center industrialization from the beginning. QTS’s response to their concerns has been to make last-minute attempts to exempt themselves from the rules – including seeking waivers from the legally required Special Use Permit, from height restrictions, from a wildlife corridor, from storm water run off … in other words, anything that holds their industrial blight in check.”
“Perhaps most ironically for a man who claims to be an ally of national parks,” Schlossberg continued, ”Chad Williams and QTS have been directly challenged on their assertions of how they will mitigate their destruction, not least because their slice of the Digital Gateway pie sits closest to the battlefield. With so-called ‘allies’ like Chad Williams, parks don’t need enemies.”
“And if you won’t take my word for it, would you believe ….QTS?,” Schlossberg asked rhetorically. “Just look at what they’re doing for another data center campus in Fayetteville, Georgia. In a video from friends in Fayetteville, you can see it is literally steaming scorched earth! Maybe Chad Williams thinks being an ally to a national battlefield park means recreating the conditions of a warzone?”
Schlossberg added, “Citizens across Prince William County are part of Chad Williams’ warzone. The Digital Gateway blight is already threatening to spread to an additional 2,500 acres. That’s despite threats to our history, drinking water supply, and reliability of the energy grid. Dominion Energy’s own VP of strategic partnerships, Alan Bradshaw, admitted that data centers are ‘big facilities in a dense area … even compared to industrial facilities like steel mills and shipyards.’ That’s right. Steel mills and shipyards in our neighborhoods and protected natural areas.”
“Wheeler’s favorite contractor thinks spreading a smokescreen of lies – and, of course, well-placed donations – will blind us to their true objective: industrializing our rural and residential areas, evading the rules, and erasing history. I’m sorry, but not really sorry, Chad. You’ve been called out – and the public will see you Tuesday night.”
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Use this easy-to-send email to make sure QTS (and Compass) get the message! Make sure your name is on the record with hundreds of others from our community letting them know You Will NOT Relent!
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QTS Environmental Strategy – Slash Burn in Fayetteville Georgia – YouTube
https://www.virginiabusiness.com/article/on-cloud-nine/?oly_enc_id=7021F3606790F4R
NPCA-Comments-to-Compass-and-QTS-042523.pdf (protectpwc.org)