Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- Loudoun County, Virginia, faces challenges with noise from data centers near homes.
- Residents express concerns over 24/7 noise from natural gas turbines at the Vantage Data Center.
- Utah can learn from Virginia's experience by implementing regulations for data centers.
STERLING, Va. — In Loudoun County, Virginia, data centers are like the mountains on a drive through Utah, just part of the background.
"They're big. They're gray," resident Craig Dobbs said. "They're just constantly there in your lives."
Neighbor Lindsay Shaw shared a similar description.
"They all look like these big, gray concrete buildings," she said.
But for some Virginia residents, looking at a data center inspires a much different feeling.
"A huge, blue monstrosity," said Jessica Medeiros, describing a data center recently built in her neighborhood. "I just hate it."
The Vantage Data Center in Sterling sits across the street from homes owned by people like Dobbs, Shaw and Medeiros, who didn't plan on having a data center for a neighbor.
"I actually was for the data center right at first," Shaw said.
The view from her front yard is now dominated by the facility. But that's not what she finds most concerning.
"I did not sign up for this 24/7 whistle," Shaw said.
Like her neighbors, Shaw said the biggest issue is noise.
"It's their high-pitched hum," Medeiros said when asked to describe the sound. "You can hear it in the house."
"It's loud. That's the best way to describe it," Dobbs said while standing in his front yard, where the data center's ever-present whine could be heard.
Residents in the Sterling neighborhood said they've been hearing it ever since the data center came online in early 2025.
"We were like, 'What is causing this?'" Shaw said. "And that's when we found out it was the gas turbines."
Unlike most data centers in Virginia, the Vantage campus in Sterling is powered entirely by natural gas turbines until it can eventually connect to the electric grid.
"I am only meeting with you today because I want people to know about the risks associated with it before they are built," Medeiros said.
For some, the frustration residents described to KSL is part of daily life in Virginia's "Data Center Alley," home to the highest concentration of data centers in the world.
"We've been here many times a day, and this is what it sounds like," said Christopher Miller, president of the Piedmont Environmental Council.
Miller said the Sterling neighborhood illustrates how rapid data center development has spilled out from traditional industrial areas in recent years, pushing into community and residential spaces.
"When we develop, we try to be a good neighbor," said John Stephenson, senior vice president of global public policy at Vantage Data Centers.
"While we are operating well under noise limits and ordinances of Loudoun County, we have determined that we can do it better," he said.
Stephenson said Vantage Data Centers is working to mitigate the noise in the Sterling neighborhood this summer. Some residents told KSL they had recently noticed a change and wondered whether the company was testing mitigation methods.
"Our data centers have been an amazing boon for Loudoun County," said Mike Turner, who has studied the data center industry for years and authored a paper offering best practices for communities.
Turner serves as the vice chair of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, which voted last year to end "by right" development of land for data centers.
"We've learned a lot from how we have evolved," he said. "We made some mistakes, but for the most part this has been an evolution."
He pointed out that 45% of Loudoun County's operating budget for fiscal year 2027 is coming from data centers. People living in Loudoun County, enjoy nice roads, good schools and lower property taxes than neighboring areas.
"Data center revenue has helped us do that," Turner said.
Even so, he said tolerance for data centers has shifted dramatically, and community resistance is at an all-time high.
"Our population is pretty well done with data centers," Turner said.
Though she's at the center of resistance to the data center in the Sterling neighborhood, Shaw said she doesn't consider herself anti-data center at all.
"If this had no noise, I probably wouldn't have thought twice of it," she said.
In conversations with residents, a common theme emerged when asked what advice they would share with Utahns.
"Arm yourself with data and knowledge," Medeiros said. "I wish I had paid more attention in the beginning."
"I probably should have been a little bit more involved and put my voice out there earlier rather than later," Dobbs said.
"Try to get some laws done now," Shaw said. "Try to get some regulations specifically around data centers now."
As she listened to the steady hum of the gas turbines across the street, Shaw added, "Folks in Utah and other places have a little bit of an advantage by our pain. They can at least learn from it. Know what to ask."
This story is part of a special series of reports airing on KSL this week that will look beyond Box Elder County to search for information to inform decisions about data centers in Utah. "Beyond Box Elder: The Bet on Data Centers" airs Monday through Thursday night at 10 p.m. on KSL.
