Shaena Crossland, a resident of Tucker County, West Virginia, who lives a mile from where Fundamental Data received approval to build a enormous data center sophisticated and natural gas facility, speaks at a news conference Thursday at the West Virginia State Capitol in Charleston, urging lawmakers to include protections in laws surrounding data center development. (Photo by Caity Coyne/West Virginia Watch)
Residents of communities across West Virginia where data center development is planned arrived at the state Capitol on Thursday with a message to their lawmakers: Community well-being must take precedence over data center business interests.
During a news conference Thursday, locals from Tucker, Mingo, Logan and Mason counties reiterated the concerns and fears they and their neighbors have shared in the year since the legislation passed House of Representatives Act 2014. This law – signed by Governor Patrick Morrisey last April — launched the certified microgrid program, which offered numerous incentives for data center developers to locate in the state.
The law stripped local governments of any authority to regulate the operation of certified data centers in their communities. In addition, much of the property tax revenue generated by the construction projects – all but 30% – was redirected from local governments to the state.
In the year since the law was passed, developers have applied for permits to build data centers — and massive, natural gas-powered facilities to power them — in Tucker, Mingo and Mason counties. Since the proposals were received, residents in surrounding communities, who would bear the brunt of the development’s potential environmental and public health impacts, have raised the alarm.
“We have a population in Southwest Virginia that has had enough,” said Tonya Mounts, who lives in Gilbert near the proposed TransGas project.
“We have lived for generations with large corporations coming into the market, taking resources, exploiting people and leaving them with the consequences of that – health, environmental and other – and now we are going to see more of that,” Mounts continued.
Residents are enraged that their local governments – and they – do not have the power to dictate how developments in their own backyards operate. That’s them affected that thirsty data centers will deplete their local water supplies. They fear that air pollution from the power plants will raise harm public health. They are frustrated that the state government and developers have not practiced transparency about the developments. They fear that noise and lithe pollution from data centers will irreversibly change their communities.
earlier this weekHouse lawmakers approved fresh rules for operating certified microgrids and data centers in the state. During the process, they voted down two amendments from both Democratically And republican Legislators who would have taken at least some of these concerns into account.
Those changes would have added language to the code allowing locals to petition for developments, restricting the source of water for the projects, increasing transparency about how much water is being used and establishing a buffer zone to keep them at least 500 feet from homes, schools and churches.
Opponents of the changes said if implemented they would deter developers from visiting West Virginia for their projects because of the increased regulations.
But residents of communities who will live next to the settlements believe that such protective measures are necessary.
“We need our legislators to listen to our concerns and advocate for us. They need to take what we say seriously,” said Logan County resident Susan Perry.
In nearby Mingo County, TransGas is proposing to build two data centers and two natural gas plants to power them. The facility would also house 40 diesel tanks at each site to provide backup power if methane is not available.
Perry has lived in Logan County her entire life. She said she chose to raise her family there after living in Charleston for years because she wanted to live in a slower, quieter community.
“Our communities in Southwest Virginia are who we are,” Perry said. “If you’re talking about coming here, running diesel, building two power plants, (potentially) adding so much light and so much noise – then you’re disrupting the life and the community that we’ve built. We’re going to have to live there every day with that noise right next door. I don’t want that (for future generations). I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like.”
And while developments aim to provide communities with more income and opportunities, The locals are worried that the consequences of such projects in particular will not be worth the costs they will have to pay. There are other things that could be addressed to improve economic conditions, they said.
“While we applaud the state for trying to find ways to improve our economic conditions, there are cleaner and safer options that should be explored,” said Mason County resident Elaine Matheny. “Supporting working families with more affordable child care has proven effective in improving the economy without pollution. Investing in public education, health care and clean energy are all areas that will improve local economies, as is rehabilitating aging gas and oil wells. The government shouldn’t be about helping (data center developers). It should be about helping our communities, not hurting us.”
Shaena Crossland lives less than a mile from Virginia-based Fundamental Data suggests the construction a massive data center and natural gas-fired power plant in Tucker County. She said she has spent much of her life traveling. She was born and raised about 40 minutes from Thomas. 25 years ago she decided to make the petite town her indefinite home.
“Tucker County made me who I am today. It gave me everything I ever dreamed of. I chose to raise my family there and make it my home, and I did that because I wanted to breathe that fresh air. Be close to the mountains and nature. That’s very important to me,” Crossland said. “This (data center development) threatens everything. It threatens our economy and the close community we were able to build for ourselves.”
Crossland said she doesn’t want to see West Virginia’s history repeat itself with data centers, as has happened with other extractive industries such as coal. It’s not a fresh story, she said, and everyone from the Mountain State has seen it all before.
“We’ve had this continuous cycle of big companies coming to our state. They’ve offered economic growth, they’ve offered good jobs, they’ve offered bread for our table,” Crossland said. “Instead, we’ve seen them just come in, rape our country and leave us to clean up the mess. That’s not a good future for our children. That’s not good economic growth.”
Perry said she wants every person in West Virginia to imagine what it would feel like to be in the position she, Crossland, Mounts and Matheny are in. She wants to think about what it would be like if the lives they have built for themselves in their respective cities were threatened. To be told by the people who elected them to represent them in the legislature that they cannot have a say in how their own communities operate.
“It’s incumbent on all of us to make sure that if we want to have (data centers) – and I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to have (them) – but if we want to have that, if that’s the will of the legislature, then we have to have regulations that protect us, the citizens, because those legislators are here to do our job for us,” Perry said. “You are here to represent us and people should be more important than profits, not the other way around.”
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