By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
Tucker County Commissioner Fred Davis has been spending part of his vacation working. According to Commissioner Davis, he has been investigating data centers. Over the weekend, Davis said he toured data center sites in Virginia to learn more about the potential impact on Tucker County.
The facility that Davis said he was able to learn the most about was in Strasburg, Virginia. Davis said he spoke to five different people in the area about the project and was given favorable feedback on it in regards to pay and benefits.
“Each one of them says people that work there make good money and they got good benefits,” Davis said.
Davis said he asked for more information about data centers from the people in Strasburg. He said he was informed that it was “the thing of the future.” Davis said he was told in one place they received new schools, improved schools and new hospitals from the revenue from the data center.
“They said that its the thing of the future, its coming and they are going to be everywhere, they said,” Davis said. “But the tax money off of them is going to be great for people.”
Davis said that the largest complaint he found in his travels was in regards to the land requirements of the projects. Locals in Virginia that Davis spoke to said that their largest complaint was with how much land they took up. Davis said that when one came in, inevitably, more came which led to more land being taken.
“The biggest thing that most said they don’t like is, is they take a lot of land,” Davis said. “If you get one, you’ll get more data centers. If you get one, you may get 10 or 15 more data centers together.”
Davis said that one man he spoke to said that he saw data centers as a win lose situation. If data centers were not built there, it would have been a McDonald’s or Walmart or some other Big Box store, Davis said.
“They are putting them in cities and in towns and stuff,” Davis said. “They take over, he said.”
Davis said he asked about concerns people in Tucker County have had over noise. Davis said that he was told that unless you are close, you won’t hear the hum of the center. Davis posted a video to his Facebook page from outside of a data center. Davis said that once he was approximately 100 yards from the center, he could no longer hear a hum from the facility. He also said that he visited a restaurant a mile away from the facility that was not even aware there was a data center in the area.
“I went to the one data center and I sit out in front of it and listened,” Davis said. “You could hear it humming, but if I got a hundred yards away, I couldn’t hear it.”
Davis said another of the facilities that he attempted to investigate was in Leesburg, Virginia called Data Street. Davis said he was unable to get within 300 yards of the facility due to a large fence, but the facility was estimated to be nearly a quarter the size of the Town of Thomas. Davis said despite the size, he did not hear any noise from the facility.
“I did a big one in Leesburg, Virginia and that thing was huge,” Davis said. “It was a quarter the size of Thomas. That thing was huge.”
Davis said that he was unable to find a data center that had a power plant attached similar to the proposed project in Tucker County. He said he attempted to find a similar facility, but was unable to find any in the area. However, Davis said he did speak about the issue of the power plant with people in the areas. According to Davis, when it comes to the issue of diesel, he was told that in 2025, the EPA would have regulations in place to regulate the plant.
“The only thing they could tell me was, this is 2025, the EPA and the government is not going to allow bad things around them,” Davis said. “That they think that they think they would protect them. That they would have too many rules for that, but that’s what people told me. That’s not my thought.”
Davis said that overall, he received little criticism of the facilities from the locals he spoke to. The main criticism he got was that they were “taking over.”
“No one bad mouthed the data centers at all, but they’re just taking over,” Davis said. “You get one, you’ll get more is what they’re biggest thing is.”
Davis said that he was told that data centers worked 24-7 all year around on usually two to three shifts. Jobs included security and other jobs for a total of 20 at one building, Davis said.
“I went to one in Pennsylvania, close to Lancaster, PA, yesterday afternoon,” Davis said. “We pulled up to where it said it was and we couldn’t hear anything at all.”
Davis said that all the facilities he visited were clean and well maintained, as well as secured with fencing.
Davis said that while he toured facilities to attempt to learn more, Commissioners Mike Rosenau and Tim Knotts are working with locals to learn more.
“We are working and we are trying to work on facts,” Davis said.
