A Sterling resident says the noise and fumes from a data center’s generators recently forced him to leave his home.
Greg Pirio told WUSA9 that he recorded the noise from a generator running from Thursday, July 16, to Friday, July 17. He says the noise registered 60 decibels at his property line; Loudoun County has a 55-decibel nighttime limit.
Pirio says that he left his house due to the noise and fumes and stayed with a family member in Vienna. “I had to go to my daughter’s house because it was hurting my lungs,” he told WUSA9. The incident occurred while the area was already experiencing dangerous air quality as a result of wildfire smoke from Canada.
Vantage Data Centers confirmed with WUSA9 that the data center turned on the backup generators for almost 24 hours due to a power failure.
In response to an email complaint by Pirio, Michael Rolband, the director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, replied that: “DEQ has no regulatory authority to stop these actions undertaken in response to the emergency that occurred and put their primary power source off line under current regulations.”
“The fact that there’s nothing they can do to stop it says that the system isn’t working to protect human beings,” Pirio told WUSA9. “It’s working just for their profits, not for us.”
Sterling District Supervisor Koran Saines says that on Tuesday he will introduce an initiative to the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors. It will direct county staff to find ways to regulate backup generators.
“For too long the residents of Sterling have experienced issues with noise from the Vantage VA2 data center, whether from the gas turbines that provide the site with power, or the backup diesel generators that run during emergencies,” Saines said in a statement to WUSA9.
Pirio says he will pursue a noise complaint through the county’s magistrate office. “My message is to people in communities everywhere,” he told WUSA9, “to make sure the regulations are in place to ensure that your environment is not being damaged, that your health is not being damaged, and that your government is responsive to your needs.”
Feature image, kubais/stock.adobe.com
