A meeting room at the downtown Fredericksburg branch of the Central Rappahannock Regional Library was filled to capacity Wednesday evening, as concerned citizens gathered to hear from local representatives from the Sierra Club and Friends of the Rappahannock about data centers.
It was so filled that it exceeded the fire code limits.
Fredericksburg Fire Chief Mike Jones was present and said he counted at least 50 attendees at one point, with some standing and some seated in the small room. After an hour of the presentation, a staff member said the room would have to be vacated.
But during that hour, Tim Cywinski, communications director for the Sierra Club Virginia Chapter, led a passionate attack on the myriad environmental concerns for data centers and even the need for the technology they will help generate.
“This new wave of data centers has nothing to do with Internet access,” Cywinski said. “This has nothing to do with making sure kids can do their homework in a library. It has everything to do with Artificial Intelligence.”
Cywinski told the audience that the kinds of data centers being proposed and built in Virginia currently “contribute to the destruction of our land, our water, our economic security and our shot at a livable future.”
Virginia is the data center capital of the world, with over 300 already operating in Loudoun, Prince William and Fairfax counties. Now their reach is expanding into Stafford, Spotsylvania, Caroline, King George and Culpeper counties. Last week, Fredericksburg Mayor Kerry Devine broached the idea of bringing a data center to the city near Celebrate Virginia South.
A map created by the Sierra Club showing proposed locations of data centers in Spotsylvania County. (Photo by Kathy Knotts)
When Gov. Glenn Youngkin visited Germanna Community College’s Spotsylvania campus in March he touted a $35 billion commitment to the region by Amazon Web Services to construct data center campuses.
Caroline County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff Black said it would take 106 years for the county to generate the $6 billion it is expecting from Amazon, based on its current tax revenue. Caroline Supervisor Clay Forehand supports data centers as well. Forehand said they are quiet neighbors that do not bring any traffic or major noise issues.
He said data centers provide more value and tax revenue than anything else that could be built in the county.
“A single campus of data center buildings would be the equivalent tax benefit as eight to 10 one-million square-foot distribution center buildings without the 18,000-plus trucks a day crowding our roads and exits,” Forehand said during a recent meeting. “I’m in favor [of data centers], as long as it can be done the right way, where the reasonable impacts to residents are minimal or nonexistent.”
Powering a small city
Forehand, who worked for companies that provided electrical work in data centers, said setbacks and buffers typically mitigate issues with neighbors. He also cited jobs as a benefit with each building in Caroline expected to have 30 to 40 employees earning an average salary of $100,000 per year.
“My thoughts on these types of campuses are they’ll be there but you’ll never see them, you’ll never hear them, you’ll never smell them,” Forehand said.
However, energy demand is high on the list of concerns for environmentalists.
“In just Fairfax and Loudoun counties, the power required to run just the centers there is the equivalent amount of power as for the entire city of New York,” Cywinski said.
He added that utility companies, such as Dominion Energy, must build more infrastructure to support the energy needs of these data centers and any electricity generated would be solely devoted to them. The Sierra Club noted that data centers currently consume nearly a quarter of the power provided by Dominion Energy, Virginia’s largest utility company.
“As power from data center usage is projected to double in size, Dominion’s plan suggests building several new, expensive, and polluting natural gas plants to meet the demand. The construction costs of these plants will be passed on to customers, leading to soaring increases in monthly electric bills,” states the Sierra Club fact sheet.
Too hot to handle
Data centers need lots of water to keep their facilities cool. While some data centers build their own water reuse systems, others may divert water from a local source.
A proposed 35-mile pipeline project in Caroline County would create a water intake facility to draw from the Rappahannock River due to declining levels in eastern Virginia aquifers. But some suspect it is just another link in the chain toward giving potential data centers access to water.
“Caroline County has one approved data center campus that is part of a four-part campus for Amazon, and it will take over 1,000,000 gallons of water from the river, which a lot of people rely on as a source of drinking water. And it was approved anyway,” Cywinski claimed.
Amazon’s Orrock Tech/Mattameade Tech campus sits on the Caroline and Spotsylvania county line. This location actually plans to recycle and reuse its water through a system of what are known as purple pipes.
Brent Hunsinger with the Friends of the Rappahannock discusses the water needs of data centers. (Photo by Kathy Knotts)
Brent Hunsinger has been in the water fight on behalf of Friends of the Rappahannock. He said data centers are a major concern when it comes to impacting water quality and quantity in the region.
“This is something that Friends of the Rappahannock has been paying attention to and dealing with in a variety of counties in the middle-Rappahannock, greater [George Washington Regional Commission] region,” he said.
“Data centers should not be using potable water from public water supplies to cool their servers. They should be required to use the most up-to-date cooling technology that uses as little water as possible. Where possible, they should be required to utilize water reuse aka the purple pipes.”
In an email after the meeting, Hunsinger did state that FOR’s approach is that “we believe in working in a civil constructive manner with all stakeholders.”
‘Hit pause’ on development
Both Hunsinger and Cywinski agree that an important first step for citizens concerned about data centers is to ask localities to “hit pause” on approvals of future development and then make sure what gets built is done responsibly and with minimal impact to health, environment, and families.
“There’s no denying the fact that if a data center is approved, the tax incentives and the revenues are significant and have the potential to — even with the agreements that are put in place where some of those taxes go back to the companies — you still getting tens of millions, or hundreds of millions of dollars, which helps with your infrastructure,” Hunsinger said. “So, the quality of the agreements that are put in place comes down to the attorneys and the staff of the county that negotiate those deals.”
At the state level, Hunsinger said, the General Assembly appears to be waiting on the results of the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) study in December before moving forward with any potential regulations on data centers.
“FOR recognizes that data centers are a key part of the digital world that we live in and that they support the basic functions of everyday life,” Hunsinger stated. “The problem is the deal with Amazon at the state level was signed before the state did the needed planning around what guidelines needed to be established. The JLARC study will help provide recommendations that can be adopted by the General Assembly, if the political will exists to do so. Our concerns center on proper siting and lack of established guidelines that would help protect our natural resources.”
The appeal of approving these behemoths is understandable, Cywinski said.
“They come into a local government, they say, ‘Hey, here’s some money, this is going to end your tax revenue problem.’ But they don’t tell them how much it’s going to cost in other ways.”
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to show that the Amazon campus on the Caroline and Spotsylvania county line will use recycled/reclaimed water.
