To the Editor of The Parsons Advocate,
Tucker County is at a crossroads. The choices made about development in the county, including Ridgeline, a project that is planned to include data centers and on-site power generation, will help decide whether Tucker County has an economy that will support its population or whether the next generation must depart for greener pastures. I am grateful to the Advocate for the chance to make that case for Ridgeline, and to Zina Raye of Tucker United, whose recent article raised questions of legitimate community concern for a project of this scale. I want to answer those concerns honestly, and to explain what Ridgeline could mean for the place you call home.
I, along with other members of the Fundamental Data team, had the opportunity to hear from Davis residents at a public town hall meeting, the broader community at a private forum, and many more residents in local restaurants and breweries in the area. I know that many residents support the project and the vast economic opportunity it could bring. Others have legitimate health, safety, and environmental concerns. Both sides are passionate and understandably so – this is your home and you want what is best for your families, your neighbors, and your community.
I was able to spend several hours talking with Ms. Raye and other members of Tucker United after her article in the Parsons Advocate was written but before it was published. Most of the people I spoke with, including Ms. Raye, are local residents with real and valid questions about how the project will affect them. I don’t blame them for being concerned. The more I listened, the more I came to understand that most concerns are rooted in the unknown or in misperceptions rather than in the project itself.
Some developers begin with big announcements and promises before they hold a single permit or approval. Such projects are often more show than substance, and more of them are cancelled than ever break ground. Tucker County has seen its share of false hope and false promises – and of industries that took what they wanted and left little behind. We want no part of that legacy, and we are not doing this for publicity. Ridgeline is different by design: not an extractive project that packs up once a resource is gone but permanent infrastructure designed to operate for decades.
We prefer to be judged by what we deliver, not by what we announce. We have been deliberate about how we engage this community. Ridgeline is complex and ambitious, and many of its details are still being settled. We would rather bring you a plan you can rely on than float premature details we later have to walk back. As those decisions are made, you will hear them from us directly.
Ridgeline could be by far the largest economic development project in West Virginia history if all phases are completed. If it goes forward, it will create thousands of construction jobs lasting up to a decade as the phases build out, along with hundreds of permanent careers in plant operations, security, equipment maintenance, and IT infrastructure. Based on figures already calculated by the state, if completed as planned, Ridgeline’s first phase alone would more than triple the tax base of the area. In practical terms, that would be funding for what every family relies on – schools, roads, ambulances, and the first responders who keep us safe – all paid for by property taxes on the facility. We are not asking for, nor do we expect to receive, any special tax treatment. We will be paying the same rates as everyone else.
For those who support Ridgeline and those who need jobs, I know this can’t happen fast enough. We are doing everything we can to push this project forward and get people in Tucker County working again. For those who oppose it, we continue to take your concerns into consideration and try to mitigate them. We hope to earn your trust over time.
For those who are unsure, and worried about what Ridgeline might mean for tourism, I understand the concern – protecting what makes this area special matters to us, too. But I am confident that worry is unfounded. I do not expect Ridgeline to have any material impact on existing tourism to Blackwater Falls, Timberline, Canaan Valley, or other local attractions. It will sit on reclaimed industrial land – not untouched wilderness – well over a mile from neighboring structures, and the natural topography would completely obscure any line of sight from the scenic corridors.
Let me speak plainly about the environment, because I know it is what worries people most. The air you breathe and the water you drink are not abstractions to us – many of the people who will build and run this facility will be drinking that same water and breathing the same air. We are working to hold our environmental footprint to the absolute minimum the project allows, and no one here has any interest in making anyone sick or fouling West Virginia’s air or water. The country faces an urgent need for reliable power, and we intend to help meet it in the most responsible way available: natural gas combined cycle, the cleanest form of the around-the-clock generation the grid still depends on.
Ms. Raye posed a number of specific technical questions, and some of the answers depend on final engineering and permitting decisions that have not yet been made. We would rather give the community real answers than speculative ones, and we will hold a public meeting early in our process – well before any operation begins – to address them in detail. But the worry underneath most of those questions is simpler, and entirely fair: is this facility safe to live near? The rest of this letter speaks to that question directly.
Emergency Services
Fundamental Data has planned Ridgeline to be privately financed, without any direct public financial support. The facility is being designed with its own dedicated, on-site industrial safety and fire-suppression capability, sized for the assets it will protect and for response and any remediation that may be required. The principle is simple: Ridgeline is designed not to become an operational or financial burden on local taxpayers, and not to lean on volunteer departments or distant commercial crews to protect itself.
We also intend to be a resource to our neighbors. We will work toward a formal, written mutual-aid arrangement under which our on-site fire and medical teams can support regional emergency management when an incident exceeds local resources, and we welcome your first responders’ input in shaping it. Our staff will be members of this community – the very people reading this right now – and it only makes sense that we plan for everyone’s safety together.
Fire Management
In the highly unlikely event of a fuel fire, industrial emergency protocols do not rely on local volunteer departments manually battling flames with standard fire trucks. Our current design concepts include built-in, automated suppression infrastructure: systems engineered to cool adjacent tanks and prevent structural collapse, while specialized foam injection systems work to seal off the fire’s oxygen supply. Redundant secondary containment is being designed to ensure that fuel and firefighting runoff is captured safely on-site without reaching the surrounding watershed.
To ensure regional drought conditions never affect our ability to suppress a fire, the facility is being designed to maintain its own independent, on-site water reserves. Every major safety system at Ridgeline is being designed to be highly fault-tolerant and redundant, utilizing the same defense-in-depth engineering philosophy found in critical infrastructure nationwide.
It is too early to finalize details like training schedules, since the facility has not even broken ground yet. When those details are set, safety will be the first concern, as it is now. Our setbacks will place the nearest structure more than a mile away, buffered by terrain and heavy tree cover. Given that location, the design, the setbacks, the surrounding topography, and our safety strategy, I am confident this facility can operate without putting nearby communities at risk.
Protection and Security
As a critical infrastructure facility, Ridgeline must be protected from natural phenomena – lightning, floods, storms, and the like – through various engineering measures, and from human threats through a substantial security team for physical defense (including against drones) as well as cybersecurity measures commensurate with the investment and the critical nature of the facility.
Our physical security strategy plans for a highly trained, prepared, and equipped team capable of dealing with modern threats. We will secure the facility with protocols and practices commensurate with major critical infrastructure. We will collaborate closely with local law enforcement, working to establish resources and communication channels that ensure seamless coordination with our security personnel in any eventuality. We will not be able to make our full security plan public because bad actors could use that information against us.
We recognize that an industrial facility of this scale is a major adjustment for Tucker County. But we want to emphasize that our security teams, our plant operators, and our safety technicians will not be anonymous outsiders – they will be your neighbors, your friends, and members of this community. We are not asking Tucker County to absorb public risk for our private profit. We are developing a privately funded anchor infrastructure designed to protect itself, protect the surrounding environment, and provide the economic foundation to fund county schools, roads, and emergency services for generations. Our hope is that the young people of Tucker County can stay in West Virginia, earn a good living, and raise their families right here at home.
We look forward to sharing the finalized plan when it’s ready.
Sincerely,
Lewis Reynolds
Fundamental Data LLC
