LOUDOUN COUNTY, VA – According to a new report, emails among staff at Virginia's Department of Environmental Quality show an agency immediately mustering to defend controversial data centers in the face of a critical assessment, even as staff argued they weren't qualified to respond to some of the assessment's warnings about health impacts.
Politico reports that a tranche of emails shows VA DEQ Director Michael Rolband leaping to the defense of Loudoun County's Vantage data center complex following a report commissioned by the Piedmont Environmental Council that raised concerns about the pollution emitted by Vantage's power sources.
The DEQ issued its own report a month later, rebutting Piedmont's claims with arguments similar to those made by the data centers themselves, Politico reports. DEQ says it issued its report in response to inquiries about the Piedmont report, but Politico's emails show the DEQ began crafting its response, which included assertions about health effects, immediately.
A former DEQ official questioned the move.
The emails also show DEQ shared its response to the Piedmont report with Vantage and The Data Center Coalition before sending it to reporters and the public.
Residents living near the Vantage data center campus in Loudoun County are complaining about noise and pollution from its diesel generators. Members of the county board of supervisors are exploring how they can regulate the industrial sites within their borders.
Read more from Politico here.
Read more about data center battles here.
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