Digital Gateway Should Not Sidestep the Comprehensive Planning Process

The Comprehensive Plan is a document designed to guide the future of Prince William County. The comprehensive plan  presents a vision for the future including the long-range goals and objectives for all activities that affect the community and local government. The comprehensive plan is required by state law to be used as a guide to decision-making about the natural and built environment by the county's Board of Supervisors, and others such as the Planning Commission and Zoning. If properly done the comprehensive plan will guide future Planning and development decisions in the county according to the wants and needs of the communities in an integrated manner.

Prince William County is currently engaged in updating their comprehensive plan. The process requires the collection and analysis of data on the  the environment, traffic conditions, economic conditions, social conditions (such as population and income), public services and utilities (including electricity, water and sewer), and land use conditions (such as housing and zoning). In 2018, the Virginia Legislature amended the comprehensive planning process (§§ 15.2-2223 and 15.2-2224 of the Code of Virginia) to include the requirement that comprehensive  plans ensure the continued availability, quality and sustainability of groundwater and surface water resources on a County level.  The Comprehensive Plan update in Prince William began in 2018 and does not yet address the continued availability, quality and sustainability of water resources for our residents. Seemingly our comprehensive plan does not integrate the goals of our county.

The Prince William Board of County Supervisors voted last November to adopt the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments’ (COG) Region Forward Vision includes a sustainability goal that calls for a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions of 50 % below 2005 levels by 2030. The Prince Board of County Supervisors went further in their resolution and directed staff to incorporate into the Comprehensive Plan goals of 100% of Prince William County’s electricity to be from renewable sources by 2035, for Prince William County Government operations to achieve 100% renewable electricity by 2030, and for Prince William County Government to be 100% carbon neutral by 2050. How the County will achieved this should be considered a part of the planning process. This has not be considered in the consideration of significantly expanding data centers in Prince William County. 

Drinking water for Woodbridge, Occoquan, Dumfries, Triangle and Hoadly Manor comes from the Occoquan Reservoir  via Fairfax Water. The reservoir’s current storage capacity is estimated at 8.3 billion gallons. Water from the Occoquan Reservoir supplies the Griffith treatment plant which normally serves the customers in the eastern portion of Fairfax Water’s service area and the Eastern Distribution System of Prince William County. 

Prince William County holds about 40% of the Occoquan Watershed; but more importantly, the Occoquan Watershed is more than two thirds of Prince William County land. Decisions made in Prince William County will impact all the customers of Fairfax Water. To properly protect the Occoquan Watershed and the regional water supply, the use of the remaining open land must be restricted. The Prince William County Board of Supervisors issued Directive No. 20-86 for county staff to develop a protection overlay district for the Occoquan Reservoir. 

An overlay district is used to put special restrictions land use or grant special rights to some land. An overlay district could be used to limit the types and amount of development on land within the watershed to protect the Occoquan Reservoir, it could also be ineffective if too loose or constantly overridden by the Board of Supervisors. The protection of the Occoquan needs to be incorporated into the comprehensive plan. 

In July the Prince William Board of County Supervisors initiated an amendment to the Comprehensive Plan for PW Digital Gateway which is within the Rural Crescent to change the Long Range Land Use from AE, Agricultural or Estate and ER, Environmental Resource to Technology / Flex (T/F) . This amendment would create a technology corridor of 2,000 acres along Pageland Lane for the development of data centers.  This project is part of the rural area and a sensitive portion of the Occoquan Watershed encompassing more than one significant creek. The impact to the continued availability, quality and sustainability of both groundwater and surface water, the specific impact to the quality and quantity of water available for the Occoquan Reservoir has not been studied. This is essential to know before irreversibly damaging the watershed.

Power and access to optical fiber are the most important factors in selecting a site for a data center. Each data center uses about 100 MW of power (daily- the equivalent of about 80,000 homes).  The increased base load power usage was 323 MW in NoVa for newly built data centers in the past year alone. Data center power use is driving power demand, load balancing and storage regionally.  Continued growth in data centers could impact the cost and reliability of power to the region especially as we decarbonize. Data centers operate 24/7 and increase the baseload needs for power generation. The cost to maintain the baseload will be added to the rate base for all customers.  How to meet this increased 24/7 electricity demand in a zero carbon world and the impact on electric prices to Prince William County residents needs to be studied before it is approved.

According to Amazon a moderate size data center can us 360,000 gallons of water a day  more than the water used for 5,000 people. While Loudoun County is using reclaimed water for their data center loop, to avoid using treated water; the reclaimed water from UOSA (40 million gallons a day is already reused by the Occoquan Reservoir. The only available reclaimed water would be from the Mooney plant that is 30 miles away. The impact on water supply and prices (if the Service Authority absorbs the cost to deliver water to the Digital Gateway development) to Prince William residential customers. Loudoun Water did not recover their costs and the excess was absorbed into the water rate base.

Approving the Digital Gateway technology corridor of 2,000 acres would have significant financial and sustainability impact on all the residents of Prince William County. If fully built out the data centers could use as much power as 3 million homes, as much water as 200,000 people and impact water quality and cost for the entire region. The analysis of the impacts on the region needs to be studied and considered in the framework of the comprehensive plan not as an amendment to an old plan. Most of the jobs created by data centers are the modest paying support jobs, that need to be filled by people who often depend on public transportation. Adjacent to the Battlefield may not be the right spot for this industrial development. The Board of County Supervisors should not consider the Digital Gateway Proposal until a full analysis and study of the impact of that proposal on: continued availability, quality and sustainability of water resources for our residents, contamination including increasing sodium contamination in the Occoquan ;and finally,  the impact of the proposal on the goals of 100% of Prince William County’s electricity to be from renewable sources by 2035.