Did Virginia Regulators Downplay Data Center Health Concerns? (politico.com) 16
Politico reports that in the Virginia area alone there's dozens of data center projects "that altogether need 70 gigawatts of power -- equivalent to 70 nuclear plants" -- currently seeking connection to their grid. But there's also concerns about a Virginia data center powered with natural gas and backup diesel generators:
When Virginia's top environmental regulator received an analysis warning of data center pollution, it took him less than five minutes to forward it to seven people on his staff... Internal emails obtained by POLITICO through a public records request paint a portrait of an agency that moved quickly to defend the only data center in Virginia that is powering itself -- in what former officials and environmental health advocates described as an unusual effort to shape the debate around an industry whose global epicenter is in the state. The agency's pushback focused on the report's findings that the facility in Loudoun County could release harmful amounts of air pollution through eight bus-sized natural gas turbines -- as allowed by permits granted by the Department of Environmental Quality [DEQ] itself... The request comes as data centers are devising new ways to produce their own power as a way to temper growing public discord over rising electricity prices amid the AI construction boom.
Virginia has more than 600 data centers. The report [commissioned by Virginia's 54-year-old environmental nonprofit Piedmont Environmental Council] raised concerns that the data center's on-site power system, which also includes dozens of backup diesel generators, could cause tens of millions of dollars in health damages to people living around the facility, owned by Vantage Data Centers... [The analysis also argued the pollution could lead to 3.4 to 6.5 premature deaths annually.] People living near the Vantage facility in Sterling say its natural gas turbines produce constant noise and air pollution. The permits for Vantage issued by DEQ in 2023 allow cumulative emissions of seven different pollutants, including 95 tons per year of nitrogen oxides and more than 56 tons of soot. Both contribute to asthma and heart attacks.
Those figures are in line with other state permits for minor sources of pollution, but DEQ's permits for Vantage have sparked local concerns because of the facility's location in a residential area... [Virginia environmental quality officials] raised questions about whether the report wrongly described the facility's potential air pollution as dangerous, when soot levels in Loudoun County are deemed acceptable by America's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Health experts, including former EPA air quality official Michael Korber, told POLITICO that soot pollution can negatively affect human health even at EPA-approved levels. The World Health Organization's standard for ambient soot pollution is nearly half of what EPA suggests is safe.
Some current and former staffers on Virginia's Department of Environmental Quality believe it's inappropriate for the agency to issue aggressive statements on the healthfulness of the data centers, with one former department leader saying Virginia's DEQ "is not the health department."
Virginia has more than 600 data centers. The report [commissioned by Virginia's 54-year-old environmental nonprofit Piedmont Environmental Council] raised concerns that the data center's on-site power system, which also includes dozens of backup diesel generators, could cause tens of millions of dollars in health damages to people living around the facility, owned by Vantage Data Centers... [The analysis also argued the pollution could lead to 3.4 to 6.5 premature deaths annually.] People living near the Vantage facility in Sterling say its natural gas turbines produce constant noise and air pollution. The permits for Vantage issued by DEQ in 2023 allow cumulative emissions of seven different pollutants, including 95 tons per year of nitrogen oxides and more than 56 tons of soot. Both contribute to asthma and heart attacks.
Those figures are in line with other state permits for minor sources of pollution, but DEQ's permits for Vantage have sparked local concerns because of the facility's location in a residential area... [Virginia environmental quality officials] raised questions about whether the report wrongly described the facility's potential air pollution as dangerous, when soot levels in Loudoun County are deemed acceptable by America's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Health experts, including former EPA air quality official Michael Korber, told POLITICO that soot pollution can negatively affect human health even at EPA-approved levels. The World Health Organization's standard for ambient soot pollution is nearly half of what EPA suggests is safe.
Some current and former staffers on Virginia's Department of Environmental Quality believe it's inappropriate for the agency to issue aggressive statements on the healthfulness of the data centers, with one former department leader saying Virginia's DEQ "is not the health department."
So...Washington DC's backyard (Score:3)
There are lots of Virginia areas which depend on Washington DC's money. How is this surprising?
2008 global financial crisis (Score:2)
During the 2008 global financial crisis, the only part of the USA which did economically well was Washington DC and the surrounding area due to massive increased in federal government spending.
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This is why Elon's Space DC's will win in the end, they can just shoot their waste into the sun or else pack it into Uranus.
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About that... (Score:3, Interesting)
Some current and former staffers on Virginia's Department of Environmental Quality believe it's inappropriate for the agency to issue aggressive statements on the healthfulness of the data centers, with one former department leader saying Virginia's DEQ "is not the health department."
From the Virginia DEQ website:
DEQ issues several types of air emissions permits regulating the construction and operation of certain stationary sources of air pollution in order to protect human health and the environment.
and
DEQ’s duties and responsibilities include implementing many of Virginia’s environmental statutes, including statutes related to controlling air pollution, the State Water Control Law, and the Virginia Waste Management Act.
On those bases alone - and given that air and water quality are health issues - the DEQ's stated mandates overlap with those of health departments. Therefore, it seems to me that "aggressive statements on the healthfulness of the data centers" are perfectly appropriate.
I don't understand why DEQ staffers have their knickers in a twist about this. My first thought is that they're just MAGA Republicans who are happy to undermine health and safety for a pat on the head - and maybe financial rewards - from Washington and/or big tech. I'd be happy to hear other explanations though.
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"My first thought is that they're just MAGA Republicans who are happy to undermine health and safety for a pat on the head - and maybe financial rewards - from Washington and/or big tech. I'd be happy to hear other explanations though."
Virginia is Blue now, or at least the state government is. It's more a case of don't want to offend the source of all that tax revenue.
Health concerns for important monied people or you (Score:5, Informative)
CA has the most insane smog and environmental laws in the country. The bureaucrats gained much of their regulatory power on the backs of cars and smog. Cars have gotten much cleaner, yet the CA Air Resource Board hasn't exactly gone away. These environmental centers of power in government never go away, they just grow.. In true CA fashion, I expect them to impose more requirements on car emissions so that data centers can be allowed to pollute..Can't say "no" to a corporation paying a large tax bill -- but you? Screw you, deal with it, your cars emits too much pollution anyways, why don't you go buy an electric car?. We still need a reason to have an air resource board to keep a boat load of people employed. Sound crazy? NoVA isn't that different.
I use to work for a large consumer internet provider and one of our sites had 10 MW of standby power. I think we used 2 MW at full load. But this site, previously owned by a telco you know of, had the ability to back feed that power into the community. So, the power company could cut power to the 5000 home neighborhood, power up the diesel generators, and feed the neighborhood and data center until they could bring their main power feed for the area back. Those generators were not "clean". We didn't run them often, but you could smell the diesel exhaust when we did... It was mostly a non-issue just because it was uncommon...
Now, imagine you're 5 years from getting your 1 GW grid connection.. You can have a 5x 2 MW diesel units in a month. A couple 20 MW "clean" natural gas in 6 months, and a nuclear plant in 6 years. What do you think is going to be powering those data centers 24/7 and who do you think is going to be breathing the emissions?
The government won't attempt to protect you from those emissions, won't prevent you from buying expensive fuel blends, but will likely complain that our air is dirty and we must do something. When we say 'we' we mean you.
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Also, it would be faster and much cheaper to upgrade to solar and salt batteries, than nuclear. Which makes the permanent loophole, egregious fascism, not the temporary cost of building new 'infrastructure'.
As long as politicians can be 'bought', the peo
Exactly what powers? (Score:2)
Also I don't know if you figured this out but you need to reread your own post.
The bureaucrats don't write the laws. They're cops. They enforce laws.
So your complaint isn't with the bureaucrats it's with extremely large corporations that are going to make your life more difficult. So yeah your car is going to accelerate slower and cost more so the data centers can be
Not a fan of the summary (Score:2)
Personally I would not want to live within 3 miles of the perimeter of a data center, but the summary really mixes up issues. On-site generation, presumably around a >300MW scale, should be regulated as a power plant from an environmental perspective. Diesel generators are hopefully just a backup, and at 80 hours of operation per year I would not stress about them myself. It really sounds like they shopped regulators in this case.