Letter to the Editor
Do data centers offer a bright economic future, or an economic disaster? One Stafford resident weighs in.
A Bright Future? I Think Not
I read with much dismay this morning your ill-advised and short-sighted article: “A Local Sea Change” containing a one-sided section on data centers. In describing how the area’s economy is now tied to data centers you indicate “pockets of resistance remain.” Pockets of resistance? Show me one person who wants any these lethal, polluting, water and energy consuming monstrosities anywhere near them. There is a large and growing groundswell of resistance, and anger, here, to these proposed data centers.
Specifically, I am referring to Stafford County, where I reside.
In regard to your closing paragraph, you mention their (data centers) arrival was made possible by political leaders willing to see the great potential before them and vote for the future. Voting for the future?
Stafford County is way too small (280 sq miles) and has way too many residential areas (7th most densely populated county of the state's 95 counties and expected to add 111,000 residents by 2040) and too many sensitive environmental areas, to have very many data centers. Four are approved and under construction (the logging and clear cutting of our county’s forests are devastating). Twelve more applications are pending. Several are clustered in the industrial center of the county, near the airport and Centerport Parkway. If we must have data centers that is the most logical place.
All of the remaining eight ones are too close to residential areas and the sensitive ecological watersheds.
To throw away the physical and mental health of our many residents and the unique and precious ecological resources we have (the Rappahannock River, Crow’s Nest, the entire Potomac/Accokeek/Aquia watershed), in favor of the corporations and the purported tax revenue (with the tax rate, depreciation, and rebates it is not all what they claim it will be) is what our elected officials are voting for.
Should all the proposed data centers in Stafford County be approved, the eventual net result will be a toxic industrial outdated concrete wasteland and an open sewer/cesspool left for future generations.
A bright future?
I think not.
Jeff Eastland
Stafford
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