On Wednesday, October 7, I sat through my first Stafford County Board of Supervisors meeting and realized that we MUST begin to speak out and hold our local government accountable. The board voted 4 to 3 in approval of the Accokeek Creek data center, despite heavy community opposition and heated debate between board members. The Accokeek Creek Project is one of 18 centers that have been proposed in Stafford county alone, 5 of which have been approved. Witnessing this has prompted me to begin informing my friends and family about the importance of holding these companies accountable as well as local government to ensure that these centers are more ethically and responsibly produced. We the people want as little strain on our land, environment, water, and grid as possible. By signing this petition, you are asking your local government to REJECT all present and future data center applications that will cause unnecessary disruption, strain, and damage to our environment, land, water, and air. We are not saying no to data centers period, but we are demanding stronger regulations, and asking that the county actually enforces those regulations.

I’m going to share a little about the Accokeek Creek Center to give an idea of the concerns about these data centers. Please keep in mind that each center application has different specifics regarding size, impact, and location. However, each time a data center is approved, it increases the chances of the next center being approved. Each application with their specifications can be found online. 

There are many concerns about this data center and how it impacts our community, economy, health, and the future of the industry in our area.

Environmental concerns:

 10 years of construction alone cause air and water pollution, toxins released in the atmosphere, diesel runoff, and more. Once the center begins operation, the Low Frequency Noise will travel over a mile through glass, walls, and trees, impacting our fight or flight response, and damage our nervous system. The center will create a heat island effect, raising the temperature by 3.16 degrees for a 6.2 mile radius around the site. Many power outages are expected which will require desiel generators to run, creating more pollution. All for a grand total of….64 jobs!!! 64 jobs that are not even guaranteed to be reserved for Stafford county’s residents. Which brings me to the economic concerns.

Economic concerns: 

The project violated a few of Stafford’s standards such as the minimum ft barrier between the center and residential areas to name one. The supervisors turned their heads to that violation. Though the applicant promised that the center would only be using “reuse water”, and no potable water, the means of accessing that water would require extending the pipeline; digging up the ground and potentially tearing down homes. After consulting with the county’s attorney, the board realized that imminent domain will take precedence in the event that homes would need to be torn down in order to extend the pipeline. The traffic, noise, and pollution from this project will bring down the value of our homes.

Stafford County has an incentive plan that will heavily rebate all tax revenue brought in by these sites. 10 years before operations begin, and decades before we fully even see the fullness of the anticipated revenue for the county. With the state wide, and nation wide uproar against data centers, as well as innovation in the industry with space data centers, ocean data centers, and more, there is no assurance that these centers will even exist by then. But by then the damage to the land will have been done. Here’s a bonus fact: the attorney for the applicant is also the council for the Stafford County planning commission. Talk about  conflict of interest…

Our community should not be asked to absorb permanent environmental and quality-of-life harms so corporations can move fast and call it progress. Our wildlife, which cannot speak for itself, should not be subjected to destruction and irreparable damage. Our water and power grid should not and CANNOT be negatively impacted more than it already has.

Though there is nothing we can do about the information I have shared above, I still share it to prompt my community to reflect and ask if we really understand the impact these data centers on our community. Each center that gets approved makes the next one easier. 

I am asking the Stafford County Board of Supervisors to reject any future data center proposal that threatens our air, water, power grid, neighborhoods, and tree canopy. Do not approve projects unless they can prove they will not shift the cost and damage onto the people who live here. DO NOT APPROVE PROJECTS THAT DISREGARD THE VERY STANDARDS THAT YOU SET. Stafford County Government, I ask you what good is the supposed tax revenue from this industry if your land is destroyed, your wildlife is harmed, your water and air are polluted, your home value is plummeted, your revenue is rebated, and your people are unhappy dying? I am not against all data centers, but we must have a standards and regulations, and stick to them. 

If you believe our county deserves better than noise, pollution, and preventable strain on our resources, please sign this petition.