Fisher Chewing Data Center Campus Update: Mineral Supervisor to Vote “NO.”

On a hot and steamy summer evening, Louisa residents gathered at the High School theater to participate in a town hall meeting organized by Mineral Supervisor, and Chairman of the Louisa Board of Supervisors, Duane Adams. I estimate approximately 300 folks attended, representing not only the Mineral district but a broad representation of the whole of Louisa County. The mood light, but pensive, as folks entered and took their seats or milled about chatting with one another.

After brief remarks by Adams, the question session began. From the first question onward, it was clear that the majority opposed the proposed Fisher Chewing Data Center Campus. Questions focused on three main themes: water, power, and projected tax revenues. Skepticism abounded. The questions were not limited to the proposed new data center campus, however, but also focused on the two already approved Amazon Web Service data centers and the newly announced Shannon Hill Road data center near I-64.

In one early exchange, a woman who said she worked professionally as a data center designer and planner, challenged Adams’s assertion that every five years the data center’s hardware, such as servers, would be replaced. By installing new equipment every five years, Adams’s alleged, the business tax revenues would reset, with Louisa County reaping the maximum tax revenue. She said that assumption was flat out wrong.

She has a point, Loudoun County had a $60 million dollar tax shortfall based on this very same faulty assumption regarding a five year replacement cycle. Data centers can depreciate their hardware/equipment which allows them to pay less taxes as the equipment ages. They do not have some magical 5 year replacement cycle and replacement depends on a whole host of complex business reasons, corporate profit being one of them. This holds true for data centers in Louisa.

Adams seemed taken aback, and when she then asked Adams if the proposed data center was going to be a tier 1, 2, 3, or 4 facility, he looked a deer in the headlights, and did not answer, at least not coherently, and continued to talk over her, refusing to let her respond to his remarks, quickly moving on to another questioner. Many in the crowd were not happy with Adam’s silencing tactic, and shouted for her to be able to respond, “let her respond” rang out for a minute or so. She was never permitted to ask another question during the town hall, even though she was promised an opportunity ‘once everyone else had asked their questions.’

Adams talking over women questioners and not letting them finish their questions was a theme throughout the evening, but perhaps that is a topic of another essay.

Nonetheless, this did not deter others from asking pointed questions about noise pollution abatement; carbon offsets, water sources and usage; sewage treatment for contaminated cooling water; fallacies in the tax revenue projections; why a billion dollar corporation needs tax waivers that normal Louisa business do not get (for instance their tax rate on business equipment); number of jobs once construction is over (which Adams wildly over inflated); sources and cost of power (which Adams routinely demurred with the response that power “was not in our control”).

The town hall lasted just short of two hours, with a majority of those wanting to ask questions denied the opportunity to do so were left with the option to submit their questions on a form. In the end, Adams said he would not vote to approve the data center. Adams, from the start of the town hall, said that he was not enthralled by the proposal, but despite that assertion, he seemed overly defensive throughout the question session. One can read from his behavior that perhaps he wasn’t being totally forthright about his doubts about the proposal or was defensive about previous decisions regarding data centers he had made. Nonetheless, he continued, cautioning that he was one of six supervisors, and that folks need to reach out to their respective district supervisors.

Overall, the town hall was an opportunity for the community to speak its collective mind about not only the newly proposed data center, but about data centers in general in Louisa County and their unknown impacts, large and small. Near the end you heard more and more the question, “Why the rush? Why the rush?” I get the sense that folks just want to wait and see the impacts of the first two data centers and not blindly rush into new agreements and contracts, chasing the siren calls of easy tax revenue.