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Loudoun vice chair warns of power and water strain, cites March 2025 vote to end by‑right data‑center development
Summary
Loudoun County Vice Chair Mike Turner told Baltimore County staff that Loudoun’s experience—rapid data‑center growth, steep power demand increases and new wastewater concerns—led to code changes and a March 18, 2025 vote to end by‑right data‑center development in the county.
Mike Turner, Vice Chair of the Loudoun County board of supervisors, gave an extended presentation on Loudoun’s experience hosting a concentrated cluster of data centers and the policy lessons the county has adopted.
Turner said Loudoun has one of the densest data‑center concentrations in the country and described a rapid escalation in power use: the presentation cited a county‑level data‑center electricity draw that has grown substantially in recent years and warned that continued AI‑driven demand could require major additional grid investment. Turner said utilities and regional planners flagged a large increase in needed transmission infrastructure following Dominion Energy’s integrated resource planning and PJM’s review, and he described a JLARC (Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee) study that underscored grid buildout challenges.
Turner said that as a policy response Loudoun moved to restrict where data centers could build by right and in March 2025 the board passed a motion to end by‑right development for new data centers. "My motion to end permanently by‑right development of data centers in Loudoun County was passed on March 18th, 2025," Turner told the group. He emphasized that the county negotiated environmental packages with applicants when approvals were granted and that permitting changes aim to give the local government control over siting and performance standards.
Turner raised additional concerns: rising rack power for AI workloads (he cited a shift from roughly 10–14 kW per rack historically toward examples of 100 kW per rack for AI), and a coming increase in water consumption as data centers adopt water‑cooling or submerged‑rack systems. He warned that wastewater from cooling loops can contain heavy metals, biocides and anti‑corrosion chemicals; Turner said local water authorities are already implementing filtration practices and that EPA standards for some biocide discharges are lacking.
Turner offered recommended best practices for jurisdictions: align land‑use and zoning plans, require legislative or board approval rather than by‑right allowances, set strict noise and setback limits, require high‑tier backup generators and pre/post construction noise studies, and plan for microgrid‑compatible campus designs. He said these measures are intended to protect community interests while allowing jurisdictions to negotiate environmental and infrastructure mitigation when projects are approved.
The presentation generated questions from Baltimore County staff about jobs, water supply impact and emergency incidents at data centers; Turner said Loudoun’s experience shows construction creates many jobs but operational staffing is modest, that current water withdrawals for data centers are not crippling local supply in Loudoun (roughly 10–15% of supply when reclaimed water is included, he said), and that he was not aware of major emergency incidents at data centers during his tenure.
Turner offered his slide deck and further resources to jurisdictions considering data‑center development and emphasized that local governments must ask precise technical questions to protect residents and infrastructure.
