Lowdown on Loudoun

During Wednesday’s meeting, residents continued to grill AT&T, with one asking: “Are you willing to say for the record to all of us and to the media, that the above ground facility … is 100 percent civilian applications because you are pitching this project to us that it’s going to be giving us better phone service, better cell service, better 9/11 service, better county communications. If this has any military application I think you need to stay underground.”

Meanwhile, a petition has sprung up to stop the building getting approval, gaining over 600 signatures at the time of writing.

Other protesters include Friends of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, who said that the ”new facility will produce a four-acre scar on the landscape and will be visible from the A.T. and the adjacent Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. The structure will have night lighting that increases and exacerbates its visual impact, and will also affect the habitat of the Cerulean Warbler and other migratory birds.”

In 2015, Loudoun County also tried to limit the number of data centers in the area, over concerns that the infrastructure construction would have a negative impact on the quality of life for local residents.

When asked what benefits the building would bring to local residents, principal network architect for AT&T Scott Rushin replied: “I guess it’s reliability”.

The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors will decide how to proceed on June 23.