1. Yes, it's a whole new look! Have questions or need help? Please post your question in the New Forum Questions thread Click the X to the right to dismiss this notice
    Dismiss Notice
  2. Seeing tons of unread posts after the upgrade? See this thread for help. Click the X to the right to dismiss this notice
    Dismiss Notice

DataCenter right on Sycolin Rd/Goose Creek?

Discussion in 'General Chat Forum' started by OSimpson, Nov 13, 2017.

  1. OSimpson

    OSimpson Certified Master Naturalist

    Joined:
    Sep 24, 2006
    Messages:
    1,015
    Likes Received:
    21
    Public hearing is this Wednesday and please read the information to consider sending e-mails to the board members.

    What’s the issue? True North Data is being proposed on an environmentally sensitive site in Loudoun’s Transition Policy Area. At the same time, the Board of Supervisors is asking citizens what they would like for that area's future as part of a Comprehensive Plan review.

    The Wrong Location...
    True North Data is proposed for a 105-acre site between Sycolin Road and the Dulles Greenway. It is located directly on Goose Creek, just upstream of the public drinking water intake. There are moderate and severely steep slopes on the site that raise concerns about stormwater runoff, erosion and sedimentation.
    Other sensitive features include extensive forest cover with mature trees, wetlands, a pond, stream that drains to Goose Creek, floodplain, an extremely rare rock formation, and a half-mile of frontage on Goose Creek. All of this is at risk with something as intensive as a data center.

    ...and the Wrong Process

    A decision to approve True North Data would set a bad precedent and undermine faith in the Comprehensive Plan revision process that is underway in Envision Loudoun. It would establish the tone for what can happen in the Transition Area now and into the future.

    We encourage the Board to stand by its commitment to the public and protect the civic engagement process.

    I'll be at the public hearing next Wednesday evening. Please join me there if you can make it. If not, please send a letter asking the Board to deny the rezoning application!
     

    Attached Files:

  2. KTdid

    KTdid Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 14, 2006
    Messages:
    3,430
    Likes Received:
    148
    Board of Supervisors Meeting Room Location:
    Loudoun County Government Center Board Room
    1 Harrison Street, S.E.
    Leesburg, 20175
     
  3. Excelsior

    Excelsior Southern Walk||IMPERIUM IN IMPERIO||

    Joined:
    Aug 1, 2014
    Messages:
    332
    Likes Received:
    84
    As long as Loudoun County leads the way with standing up and hosting data centers more of this will continue. I keep hearing about contract awards to build more data centers and as long as this trend continues, congestion, pollution, and strain on the public services will only get worse. If Loudoun County wins Amazon HQ, I can't imagine the environment/community impact.
     
  4. vacliff

    vacliff "You shouldn't say that."

    Joined:
    Nov 14, 2002
    Messages:
    5,281
    Likes Received:
    344
    Data Centers, as opposed to office parks, reduce congestion, reduce pollution, and are a FAR less strain on public services. They provide a huge amount of tax revenue to the county while requiring little in the way of public services.
    The reason the county has been able to fund the ever increasing School budget without raising taxes is because of the revenue from the data centers.
     
    jwf likes this.
  5. techeng01

    techeng01 Member

    Joined:
    Sep 15, 2016
    Messages:
    40
    Likes Received:
    8
    remember when Sycolin was a gravel road, and driving past those barns made you feel that you had left Ashburn?
     
  6. vacliff

    vacliff "You shouldn't say that."

    Joined:
    Nov 14, 2002
    Messages:
    5,281
    Likes Received:
    344
    Yes I do! Sometimes the road was okay, other times it was a disaster with water channels cut through the road, massive pot holes, etc.
    I still get the same "I can't believe I'm still in Ashburn" when I drive on Red Hill Rd after crossing Evergreen Mill.
     
  7. flynnibus

    flynnibus Well-Known Member Forum Staff

    Joined:
    Oct 29, 2002
    Messages:
    5,358
    Likes Received:
    250
    Do you know what they actually get to tax for data centers tho? Besides property taxes and utilities.. isn't all the 'business' being done elsewhere?
     
  8. T8erman

    T8erman Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Sep 26, 2003
    Messages:
    5,236
    Likes Received:
    249
    I remember when Ashburn was almost all farmland.
     
  9. Mr. Linux

    Mr. Linux Senior Member & Moderator Forum Staff

    Joined:
    Jul 26, 2001
    Messages:
    3,277
    Likes Received:
    69
    My issue with data centers is that even though they bring in tax revenue for the county, they bring with them very few jobs in relationship to their size. Without the new jobs, surrounding businesses continue to suffer because we're not bringing in more 'customers' for the services they are offering, such as restaurants, stores, nail salons, etc.

    So yes, these data centers bring in some tax revenue, but I would prefer if they brought with them more jobs into our area and thus boosting our local economy with more people spending money with local businesses.
     
  10. Excelsior

    Excelsior Southern Walk||IMPERIUM IN IMPERIO||

    Joined:
    Aug 1, 2014
    Messages:
    332
    Likes Received:
    84
    Kind of where I was coming from in my earlier post. Construction of these = congestion and pollution. They require power, space, and cooling. Power requires infrastructure build-up, which requires construction, which equals pollution and congestion. The space requirements mean that they are ravaging vast swaths of beautiful vegetation and virgin soil. Cooling requires water. Chillers require fresh water and I heard one of the major attractions to Loudoun is cheap water from Loudoun water. That water washes out somewhere. Not to mention the generators and diesel fuel required to sustain them (which pollutes). There are of course also hazardous chemicals and substances contained within a data center. God forbid one of them catches fire or there is an earthquake. Are the fire stations in Loudoun properly resourced to handle?
     
  11. Silly Yak

    Silly Yak Member

    Joined:
    Feb 16, 2006
    Messages:
    246
    Likes Received:
    15
    Are data centers necessary? If so, where should they be put?
     
  12. KTdid

    KTdid Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 14, 2006
    Messages:
    3,430
    Likes Received:
    148
    As some posts suggest, the vast amount of resources (land, energy, cooling,) and lack of jobs, does not offset the revenue gained, IMO. It is irresponsible to grant tracts of land to these projects without studying the long term impact to our eco-sensitive landscapes.

    'In 2016, the U.S. government released a study of data center energy use, which the first in the complete analysis of the topic over the past decade. In the study, it was estimated that data centers in the United States consumed 70 billion kWh of electricity in 2014 which is equal to 1.8% of the country’s total energy consumption for that year. In the same year, data centers were estimated to have used 626 billion liters of water which equates to 1 liter of water consumed for every .11 kWh used. To put that into perspective, that .11 kWh can only power a 40-watt lightbulb for about 3 hours. Alternatively, the average daily electricity consumption for a U.S. residence is 30.03 kWh. If this amount of electricity was consumed by a data center instead, it would equivalent to about 273 liters of water consumed which is the recommended intake of water for men over the course of three months. Due to their excessive consumption of electricity and water, in addition to several smaller factors, data centers have been estimated to account for about 2% of total global greenhouse emissions annually, or about 648 billion kilograms of CO2 in 2014. The industry claims that in the coming years they will be able to upgrade their facilities without increasing their proportional contribution to total global greenhouse emissions, but regardless of their claim’s veracity, their objective should not only be to maintain their consumption but to minimize it.'
    https://sites.duke.edu/lit290s-1_02_s2017/2017/03/08/data-centers-a-latent-environmental-threat/ Multiply this by our current 75 data centers and you can begin to see magnitude of consumption.

    Further, as the world's terror threats increase with potential to harm our nuclear power plants, power stations, water plants, airports, hospitals, etc., you can now add data centers to the pool. Loudoun will definitely be in the crosshairs.
     
  13. flynnibus

    flynnibus Well-Known Member Forum Staff

    Joined:
    Oct 29, 2002
    Messages:
    5,358
    Likes Received:
    250
    The water is circulated into heat exchangers which turn it to steam... not runoff.

    Generators are not used to sustain - they are used as emergency backup. They aren't running but during tests. They have fuel storage, but are not consuming vast amounts of fuel except in emergency situations.

    The hazardous chemicals/etc is really no different than what you have in your house - but unlike your house, these places have huge assets to fight fires to minimize the size of an accident. They really aren't any different risk wise vs any other commercial application... but have far more emergency response assets to prevent loss.

    I don't think any of the above is valid concern. What Data Centers are use power sinks... that generate very few jobs and are not very compatible with mixed development.

    They are huge consumers of utilities and space... for a very low return on number of businesses and jobs.
     
    jwf likes this.
  14. flynnibus

    flynnibus Well-Known Member Forum Staff

    Joined:
    Oct 29, 2002
    Messages:
    5,358
    Likes Received:
    250
    Newsflash - an electronic economy consumes power. Data centers don't create new power consumption - they CONSOLIDATE IT.

    Datacenters are far far far more efficient at return/Watt than other forms of compute. From an energy conservation point of view, they are FAR more efficient and effective than the alternative of just putting that same compute split up everywhere.

    What they make is all that consumption consolidated and easy to see and point a finger at. It doesn't create the demand... So unless you want to say "down with computers... they are hurting the eco-sensitive community!" and advocate we need less electronic commerce and a less digital society... trying to paint the data center as an eco boogy man is misguided and simply put... wrong.
     
  15. KTdid

    KTdid Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 14, 2006
    Messages:
    3,430
    Likes Received:
    148
    Of course they consolidate...if you distributed individual IT energy usage would increase ten fold. (Newsflash) That does not negate the fact that they are energy hogs. They must meet the DOE imposed standards going forward increasing efficiencies. That hardly lessens their footprint on our eco-sensitive landscapes. You want to throw out the baby with the bathwater.

    And stop injecting your imagined thoughts into someone's statements because it benefits your line of thinking.
     
  16. flynnibus

    flynnibus Well-Known Member Forum Staff

    Joined:
    Oct 29, 2002
    Messages:
    5,358
    Likes Received:
    250
    No it means compute and the digital world we live in requires energy. You paint the energy usage as a negative - it's bad... yet when challenged you concede the datacenter is far better at energy usage than non-datacenter models. So why point the finger at the data center? What is your alternative/better scenario? Do away with computers? Go back to everyone building their own server rooms and increase waste and pollution?

    No, I counter misinformation and distortions that are attempts by people pushing agendas through fear and FUD.
     
    jwf likes this.
  17. vacliff

    vacliff "You shouldn't say that."

    Joined:
    Nov 14, 2002
    Messages:
    5,281
    Likes Received:
    344
    The equipment in the data centers pay a business tax. And because the equipment is upgraded every three to five years, that tax revenue also gets upgraded.
     
  18. vacliff

    vacliff "You shouldn't say that."

    Joined:
    Nov 14, 2002
    Messages:
    5,281
    Likes Received:
    344
    I agree it would be nice if we had more job producing businesses moving Into the county, but we don't. There is still lots of available land for office, but no one is building office buildings much anymore. At least not this far out in the burbs. If we didn't have those data centers, we would have lots of vacant land producing little revenue. And a significantly higher tax rate on our homes.
     
  19. boomertsfx

    boomertsfx Booyakasha!

    Joined:
    Feb 14, 2002
    Messages:
    2,260
    Likes Received:
    34
    Yes. Ideally, cold climates to take advantage of free cooling and then use all the heat they put off to condition homes and offices. I presume there's not a lot of peering in cold climates, so they put them where there is... here! IMHO they shouldn't be up on major roads like they are here, but instead set back so that retail and other things can utilize that premium space.
     
  20. flynnibus

    flynnibus Well-Known Member Forum Staff

    Joined:
    Oct 29, 2002
    Messages:
    5,358
    Likes Received:
    250
    The places aren't zoned as retail etc tho :)

    There are some more oddities tho... like those DCs they built near Dulles town center on nokes... those are weird spots
     

Share This Page