Virginia residents battle data centre noise, fumes and sleepless nights

Local residents in Sterling, Virginia, say round-the-clock industrial noise, diesel fumes and blazing security lights from a neighbouring data centre have disrupted their lives, not Chinese propaganda, as President Trump recently suggested.

Lindsay Shaw, who lives across the street from the AI facility, described a constant hum audible from her garden and security lights that shine through her bedroom window at night, making sleep difficult. Gas turbines and diesel fumes have become fixtures in the neighbourhood since the data centre began operations.

"It's not China telling us anything. It's not Russia telling us anything," Shaw said. "It's truly living next to it is what it is."

From supporter to critic

Shaw's opposition developed only after the project was already approved. Both she and her husband had worked in cybersecurity and initially understood the need for data centres to support cloud infrastructure and artificial intelligence.

The problems began when eight gas turbines were installed to power the facility while it waited for a connection to the electrical grid, a process that can stretch across years. The industrial impacts, constant noise, occasional smoke and nightly lights, only became apparent once the centre was operational.

Shaw's account contradicts Trump's recent claim that opposition to US data centres is being driven by China, highlighting instead the tangible quality-of-life concerns facing communities on the tree-lined streets of Sterling where industrial facilities now sit beside family homes.

Source: South China Morning Post