So much has been happening, it is difficult to keep up! (Please stick with us and read on.)
First, we want to say BRAVO to this community for refusing to give up! Our coalition of organizations and citizens is growing, not only throughout Virginia, but throughout the eastern region of the United States. We have people reaching out from as far as Georgia and as close as Maryland. Their concerns are the same: data center proliferation in the wrong places, consuming their natural and cultural resources, and impacting their quality of life.
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Thoroughfare Family Fun Day – THIS SATURDAY, June 3!
We really encourage residents to come out and celebrate the amazing living history that still exists in the Rural Crescent! It isn’t too late to protect our past, present, and future! See location and time for Thoroughfare Day in the graphic below.
Did you know there are descendants still here in PWC of people from the post reconstruction era?! Thoroughfare Town is one of those places! Please come enjoy, learn, and support your neighbors and friends.
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Data Center Sprawl
We understand there is an effort to convince Prince William County citizens to ignore the facts and ignore what their eyes are telling them: that data center sprawl is a real threat. But our message from the outset, as far back as 2014, has remained the same and exactly that.
Amazon rumor prompts fight in Haymarket | Headlines | insidenova.com
“But opponents say the $65 million transmission line is mostly being built to accommodate a single customer – Amazon.com – which reportedly has plans in the works to open a 500,000-square-foot data center near Interstate 66 and John Marshall Highway, near the Wal-Mart.”
“Elena Schlossberg, the coalition’s executive director, says residents are furious that the power needs of one company could require the entire community to put up with unsightly 110-foot steel towers that will require a 120-foot right-of-way cutting through up to 12 miles of rural Prince William County.”
“Ultimately the community is being asked to bear the brunt and sacrifice our beautiful historical and cultural landscape for one company…”
“They’re jeopardizing the quality of life of all the residents out here,” Marshall said. “What about the loss of the economic value to residents? They didn’t consider the plight of homeowners at all.”
Fast forward nine years. The only issue that has changed is the magnitude of the fight. It is no longer about one transmission line or one data center campus. It is about data center proliferation everywhere, throughout Prince Willam AND the entire Commonwealth, putting our energy grid at risk and ruining communities.
Opponents of data center sprawl picket industry conference | News | fauquier.com
“On the fifth floor of the Ritz Carlton hotel in Tysons, it was all business as 500 data center operators, developers, and suppliers shared problems and solutions at an industry conference. But out in front, the mood was both more festive and more angry: 22 protesters waved sharp-witted signs and voiced noisy chants to raise awareness about problems caused by the region’s growing number of data centers.”
“The message from the residents of Fauquier, Prince William, Fairfax and Loudoun counties was straightforward: Data centers are sucking up vast amounts of electric power to the detriment of the state’s climate goals, environment and community life.”
Tim Cywinski, communications chief of the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club, said he came to support “the cause.”
“We can talk about the technology, we can talk about the energy grid, but what we’re really getting at is when we build more data centers, this unrelenting expansion that we’ve been seeing, it’s going to impact people’s lives,” he said. “It’s going to impact children’s future. It’s going to impact air quality, and water quality, or water resources that matter.”
“Elena Schlossberg, president of the Coalition to Protect Prince William County, complained that the costs of building new transmission lines to serve data centers will be borne by ratepayers, not the data centers themselves.”
“She noted that the local battle over who pays for transmission lines dates back to 2014 when a group of Prince William citizens tried to get Amazon to foot the bill for a 6-mile overhead transmission line to a new Haymarket data center. They lost that battle but succeeded in getting part of that line buried.”
“These are all data center extension cords that we are paying for,” she said. “Because our position is that citizens should not be bearing the brunt and sacrificing our cultural and natural resources for one load customer.”
“She called for a hiatus in data center construction while a study is done of their effects. “We are asking for a pause until we understand the impacts to our grid, the impacts to our water, the impacts to our communities and our homes,” she said. “
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MORE Transmission Lines and Substations
The Coalition is participating in a stakeholders group with Dominion Energy. Here is what we know and has been confirmed, as the Coalition to Protect PWC has been warning both Ann Wheeler and the community: new transmission lines are coming to feed the insatiable appetite of the data center power industry need for power, and WE will all bear the brunt of that infrastructure.
Those that are witnessing the atrocity of the Village Place Technology Center data center build have not yet experienced the oncoming fight over the 110 ft tall transmission line infrastructure and the associated ugly substations that are required to support those data centers. And there will be more data center projects similar to Village Place all over our county and state – with more transmission line routes and substations as well!
What does the below map from Dominion tell you about where the infrastructure will go? It is centered around where Ann Wheeler has pushed approval of data center development outside the overlay or is in her sights to approve. This map represents EVERYTHING this community has been fighting to stop: Villages Technology Park, John Marshall Commons Tech Park, 29 Technology Park, Devlin Technology Park, The Digital Gateway.
The map appears sterile. Take a look at both graphics as to WHY we have been sounding the alarm to data center proliferation in our communities, near our national parks, and in our drinking water supply watersheds.
The reality of a Data Center campus is that the promises of “hidden from the community behind berms and trees” is a sick farce. Our reality is that Ann Wheeler and her lock-step fellow supervisors are pushing THEIR vision of a concrete jungle on tens of thousands of residents. Accusing citizens of being NIMBY while they ruin our homes. And to add salt to the wound, foisting massive new transmission lines throughout our districts to feed the insatiable power appetite of this ONE industry.
These pictures below depict what we can look forward to throughout the Gainesville and Brentsville districts if we don’t stop this unrestrained development now.
THIS is our future. No longer can you see the view of the Bull Run mountains, no longer will you relish the sunrise if you live in the Villages Community. This data center development at The Villages is NOT an aberration. These buildings are 88 ft tall and not yet complete; the roofs with massive cooling units are yet to be installed. Once they are all up, the viewshed is gone.
And – HERE is just one possible route for the required massive transmission line WE will be paying for with rate increases. This is just ONE of several transmission line routes we are certain are coming if this Board continues approving data center after data center.
AND YES – there is yet ANOTHER data center application next to Villages Technology Park; demonstrating, as we have been saying, industrial blight begets more industrial blight.
81-acre data center project proposed for Gainesville | Business | fauquiernow.com
Making A Difference
It is hard to imagine our way through this mess, but together, we ARE making a difference. YOUR voices have been and are creating the push back that cannot be ignored.
Do you know what data centers CANNOT do? VOTE.
Fire Chair Ann Wheeler! Get out and vote for Deshundra Jefferson in the upcoming June 20 Democratic primary. Deshundra has been out front for two years fighting against data center proliferation in this county. Ann must be concerned about this challenger – why else would there be an infusion of hundreds of thousands of dollars into her campaign, both directly and indirectly?
Have your vote send a clear message to Chair Ann Wheeler and to the data center industry: You Are Fired & Our Quality of Life is NOT FOR SALE.
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If you haven’t already, use this easy-to-send email to make sure QTS (and Compass) get the message! Make sure your name is on the record, along with hundreds of others from our community, letting them know You Will NOT Relent!