PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, Va. — A small, yet mighty group of protestors met outside of the Amazon Web Services Data Center Monday. The group protested in Manassas about their concerns, claiming noises can be heard coming from the data center at all hours of the night.
Pamilla Scott has lived in the Great Oak Community for nearly 15 years. The neighborhood has nearly 300 homes in it.
"We are going to drive away more of our neighbors and we will lose our property value of our homes. People cannot live, if they cannot live with peaceful, enjoyment of their home," she said.
Scott was hoping to continue to live in her once quiet community in peace, but the humming sound she said is coming from the Amazon Web Services Data Center is getting to the point where it’s unbearable and the mitigation tactics she said have been used to quiet the noise, are ineffective.
"Whatever they're claiming that they're doing, so far, it has not been effective. And they are saying that the levels aren't as high as what we think they are, but they're not living in the community and having to listen to this every night," Scott said.
Spencer Snakard said the data center and developmental plans are destroying what was supposed to be her forever home.
"My 10 acres are at risk of being divided in half by transmission lines from the proposed data center in Warrington. I was thinking it would be my forever home. I chose it for the lifestyle there, for the beauty, for the countryside. I'm surrounded by horse farms and trees and I can go for long walks down my road and not even see a car pass by and it's magnificent," Snakard said.
Her property sits on the Prince William and Fauquier County line. Her family chose this portion of the county for its secluded feel away from the city.
"The industrialization that we're at risk of now having happen to our area has me seriously thinking of selling and moving completely out of the region. Dominion (Energy) said the only reason they need these new transmission lines is if this data center is approved. So, these massive transmission lines and the expense all of this is purely to power the Amazon data center that will be coming right through my property and lowering my value and essentially chasing me out of my home," Snakard added.
The neighbors who braved the heat to be heard, want amazon and Prince William County leaders to remedy the noise and put a halt to what they call overdevelopment.
"We cannot live with this noise. It is affecting our health, our sleep, and if we don't get enough sleep, you know there is no peace in our homes or anywhere else," Scott said.
We reached out to Amazon late Monday for comment and received the following statement from an AWS spokesperson:
“Addressing our neighbor’s noise concerns in Prince William County is a priority for us. We started installing sound-reducing acoustical shrouds at our data center in Manassas last Friday and this work will be completed in the coming weeks. This is just one of several sound reduction measures our team is evaluating. We are proud to call Virginia home, and remain committed to working with and listening to our neighbors to further improve the environment around our facilities.”
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