By: Lydia Crawley, The Parsons Advocate
Town of Davis Mayor Al Tomson said he spent 30 to 40 minutes speaking with Casey Chapman from Fundamental Data, the company that recently filed an Air Quality Permit for a power plant next to the county landfill near Davis. Tomson’s comments on the conversation came as part of his Mayor’s Comments during the April 9th meeting of the Town of Davis Council.
“I spent 30 or 40 minutes talking to the gentleman that filed the permit,” Tomson said.
According to Tomson, Chapman is a West Virginia Native who is well acquainted with the Tucker County area and often comes to Canaan Valley for recreation. “He’s a fourth generation West Virginian and his family is from the Charleston area. He still has family there,” Tomson said. “He’s come up to the Canaan area to hunt and fish all of his life, so he knows the area.”
Tomson said that one of the biggest take aways from his conversation was that Chapman said that the project was in its early stages.
“The biggest thing about this project that he said was, this is really early days,” Tomson said. “In a hundred steps, this is like step one.”
Tomson said that he had a difference of opinion on the fact because the permit plans seems far too detailed to have been filed for a project that was just in its infancy.
“I had some difference of opinion with him on that one because with the permit being filed, there was an engineering plan that was put together that was quite detailed,” Tomson said. “That’s more than just a vague thought of maybe building something someday in some location.”
The current plans submitted were for a power plant, only, Tomson said. Though talk around the community and as far away as Charleston has been surrounding a Data Center project that would be fed by the power plant. Tomson said that the power plant proposed would produce more electricity than nearby Mt. Storm.
“Right now the permit is only for a power plant,” Tomson said. “It would produce more electricity, a little bit more electricity, then all of Mt. Storm Power Plant.”
While the plant may be designed to produce more electricity than Mt. Storm, none of it will be sold to the grid, Tomson said. It is all designed for internal use only.
“So it will produce a considerable amount of electricity and its not going to be sold to the grid,” Tomson said. “Its for internal use.”
The internal use is and the name of the company, Fundamental Data, is where talk of a Data Center begin to emerge. Tomson said that both those factors show strong signs that the power plant is designed to one or more support data centers in the area, especially when given the 500 acres the project is designed to encompass.
“So then the question comes, what’s the internal use?” Tomson said. “The hint that I think is the name of the company is Fundamental Data so it makes me sort of believe that they want to build some kind of a data center. Whether its for cloud storage, whether its for crypto coin mining, which is a data center, whether its for artificial intelligence or whatever, its probably going to be one or more data centers that get built because the amount of land that they are looking at is 500 acres.”
The land where the project is slated for is currently deeded to Western Pocahontas, according to County Clerk Sherry Simmons and as of the morning of the April 9th no land deeds had been transferred to Fundamental Data on the land, she said. Tomson also told those present at the meeting the fact that the deeds had not been transferred. Tomson also said the 500 acres of land was also part of Hunting Club land and a member of the public said that a sign with plans for the plant had been seen in the area as far back as September.
“The land right now where they propose building the power plant is owned by Western Pocahontas and the land has not officially been deeded to Fundamental Data, which is the company that filed the permit for the Air Quality to say they wanted to build this power station,” Tomson said.
Tomson said he was not opposed to the construction of the station, only to its proposed location.
“So one of my comments to him was I don’t object fundamentally to building this,” Tomson said. “I don’t like the location. Its too close to Davis and Thomas where people live.”
According to Tomson, Chapman said the location was chosen next to an existing landfill because the company thought it would be less of a nuisance to the community.
“He said he thought it was a good idea to put it right next to an existing landfill and that it wouldn’t bother anybody,” Tomson said.
Tomson said the landfill bothers the community because it is able to be seen and smelled. However, with the addition of a data center and power plant, Tomson said there will be noise and light pollution.
“My comment then to him was, the landfill bothers us because you can see it and smell it,” Tomson said. “But now we factor in noise pollution, light pollution, air pollution, things that are additive tot he nuisance we already have. So it just makes things worse.”
Tomson suggested moving the location a few miles away to near the Mettili Coal Mine due to its location away from residential areas and its already industrial nature. Chapman seemed less than enthused, according to Tomson.
“I was asking the question, why don’t you consider putting it where the Mettiki Coal Mine is, you know six or seven miles down the road where nobody’s living, its already industrial and its by the Tucker-Grant County line,” Tomson said. “He said, we’ll see.”
Davis resident Lori Quattro commented that when Western Pocahontas presented their plans for the area to the residents of Davis, there were plans for the Mettiki area that included a large housing facility. Quattro said she doubted that Western Pocahontas would consider giving up that area for the proposed project.
“When Western Pocahontas was here, they are going to build some big housing facility at Mettiki,” Quattro said. “They’re not going to give up that land.”
Tomson pointed out that Western Pocahontas also has plans to build a large residential housing project across from the landfill along 32 across the road from where the current project is slated to be constructed.
“They are also going to build one between Davis and Thomas on the other side of 32 from the landfill,” Tomson said. “So its like, why do you want this monstrosity?”
Tomson said that people in areas where they are building these data centers have begun to have many complaints about them including the noise, pollution and smells coming from them. In areas where they are connected to the grid, there are vast increases in electrical costs to residents as well, Tomson said.
“People in Manassas and Louden County in Virginia where they are building lots of data centers, the population and the local officials are starting to complain,” Tomson said. “Complaining about land, complaining about noise, complaining about smells, they are complaining about their electric costs going up because those are connected to the grid, as opposed to having their own power station.”
According to Tomson, Chapman said those facilities are using outdated technology that his company does not plan to utilize. Tomson said he was informed the company plans to use state of the art technology that is slated to eliminate many of the issues older data centers have experienced.
“He said, oh, that’s old technology they’re using,” Tomson said. “We’re going to use new technology and none of those things will be an issue. I haven’t heard of that new technology yet, so I’m waiting with bated breath.”
Tomson said he also addressed the issue of jobs. There has been a speculation in the area as to whether or not the project would bring many, if any jobs to locals.
“The data center would be very, very automated. It may have a handful of people working there and they are all going to be people who have computer skills and certifications and degrees that give them the knowledge to do that, as well as much of that work will be done remotely,” Tomson said.
Tomson said the power plant itself would employ perhaps 10 to 15 people as guards and maintenance workers.
“The power plant might employ 10 to 15 people,” Tomson said. “Some of them will be security guards, some of them will be maintenance people. So I asked about that and he said, its early to tell.”
“I said some people are saying you are going to bring hundreds of people in for the construction,” Tomson said. “I said, are you going to hire any locals? He said we will try to hire people from West Virginia. That was pretty vague and not specific.”
Much of the construction crews Tomson said he suspected would come from outside the area due to the specialized nature of the work.
“A lot of these plants when they get built, the construction crews come in from outside to build them because they have the know how,” Tomson said.
When asked to address concerns over water in the area, Tomson said Chapman would not discuss the issue. Facilities at both Davis and Thomas are operating at full capacity and would not be able to accommodate the project, Tomson said.
“I did also ask about water and he would not address that with me,” Tomson said. “I said we’ve had a drought last year. We had to pump from an alternate source. Thomas has also water issues and whether you take from, you can’t get water from Davis or Thomas, we’re both at capacity.”
Tomson said he was afraid if the facility drilled in the area, it would effect the area streams, creeks and rivers.
“If you drill wells into the aquifer, you’re going to effect the balance of the streams that supply the creeks and the rivers where we get our water and that seemed to not be of a concern,” Tomson. “So that was not addressed.”
Local input would have been preferable for the project, Tomson said. Had local authorities been consulted, alternative locations could have been discussed and options laid out, Tomson said.
“It would have been nice, in a perfect world, for them to have dialogue about the power plant with local people and we could have said before they got too far along, why don’t you put it somewhere that’s not as objectionable, that people can live with? And they might have considered it,” Tomson said. “But now, they have plans that they don’t say they are very firm, but they’re relatively firm.”
Tomson said that perhaps a contributing factor in its location was its proximity to a major natural gas pipeline in the area.
“Its right next to a gas pipeline,” Tomson said. “Its going to use as much natural gas as 150,000 homes use in a day. So every day it runs, seven natural gas fired turbines, that’s how much natural gas, its going to be using. So proximity to a big gas pipeline is very advantageous.”
“Their backup power source, their backup fuel will be diesel,” Tomson said. “They’re going to build three 12 million gallon tanks, each one is a 180 feet in diameter and 66 feet tall and those will be backup. So if the natural gas supply is cut off for some reason, they’ll use diesel fuel to power the power plant, the turbines.”
“If they build one data center, it won’t use all the power they are going to make which tells me they will build a second and a third and a fourth and a fifth one,” Tomson said. “Because it will be a little data center commune.”
Tucker County has also been at the forefront of the high speed data rollout in the state. Tucker County partnered with Prodigy to help bring high speed internet to areas of the County without access as part of the State of West Virginia’s high speed internet roll out program. When asked if he thought this may have played a part in the company’s decision, Tomson said he thought it might.
“Possibly. Because the things that they do at the Data Centers hopefully would be connected to some path that takes that information elsewhere,” Tomson said.
Tomson said he supports the creation of data centers for national security interests.
“We have to build them somewhere because AI is really going to be a big part of the future,” Tomson said. “So as part of National Security and National Defense, the problem right now is, there are so many built in very few locations, it presents a vulnerability. So, a terrorist attack or hostile nation could take out a bunch of them very easily because they are co-located. So we need to spread it out. I mean there are some National interests that say we need to do this and that is why I am saying we need to do this, consider building this, just not right here.”
Tomson said he invited Chapman to attend the Town Hall meeting the Town of Davis scheduled for Sunday April 13th.
“I have invited the gentleman from Fundamental Data to the Town Hall Meeting, the public meeting on Sunday,” Tomson said. ” I offered for him to come to meeting and speak. I said if you send me a document, I’ll read it on your behalf or if you would call on the telephone, I’ll hold the microphone to the telephone and people can hear you speak that way. He said he would think about it. So I don’t know if he will show up or not.”
Tomson said that there was a public comment period on the Air Quality Permit filed by Fundamental Data open at the DEP through April 15th.
“In the big scheme of things, we don’t have a dog in this fight except, the people that live in Davis are going to be affected and that bothers me,” Tomson said.
