Getting Sick of Data Centers

Near the nation’s capital, residents of Virginia’s Data Center Alley live among hundreds of gargantuan facilities—and feel the health toll. “A data center should not be a potential death sentence for a community’s health,” says Conner. (More here)

As data centers transform the world through artificial intelligence (AI) connectivity, they are also transforming Black, brown, and working-class neighborhoods through strained infrastructure and depleted natural resources. These facilities are not hidden away in the middle of nowhere. More than half of all data centers in the United States are within a mile of a school, from Arizona and Texas to Georgia and Virginia. These data centers and the gas turbines that power them are not only looming over student playgrounds, they are also near parks, airports, office buildings, shopping malls, and even cemeteries.

The epicenter of this global transformation, Northern Virginia, has been dubbed “Data Center Alley.” Three counties—Loudoun, Fairfax, and Prince William—are home to nearly 300 data centers and counting. Data centers in the region currently cover more than thirty million square feet, and more projects are proposed each year. A third of the world’s hyperscale data centers now sit in the backyard of our nation’s capital.