The Piedmont News is an email digest of top news stories about conservation, land use, energy, and environmental matters of interest to the region. We hope you’ll share The Piedmont News with someone else who cares about these stories.
Malcolm Andrews |
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WHRO
(July 30, 2026)
Last autumn, a peculiar-looking crop sprouted on a Loudoun County clearing where cattle have grazed since the late 1700s. This summer, curious farmers are still flocking to the undulating parcel of piedmont to investigate. What’s the draw? The eight-acre farm is the first place in the commonwealth where solar energy is being integrated with crop-based agriculture. The whole point of the unique combination is to demonstrate how the two industries can exist in harmony, not discord.
This article highlights The Piedmont Environmental Council's agrivoltaics project in Aldie, Virginia.
Loudoun Now
(July 30, 2026)
Notably, the report found that private domestic groundwater users in the Virginia Coastal Plain are estimated to increase the total annual withdrawal rate by 200,000 to 300,000 gallons per day on average by 2050. Major withdrawals have caused inland groundwater levels to decline below sea level, conditions that cause sinking and the potential for regional saltwater intrusion.
WVTF
(July 29, 2026)
The permit was unanimously approved and will allow the county to build a facility that could remove up to 9 million gallons of water a day from the Rappahannock River. Originally, the county wanted 13 million gallons a day, five million a day for drinking water and an unknown amount for cooling data centers. That led to a wave of protests.
Fauquier Times
(July 28, 2026)
Back in 2016, Elena Schlossberg led an effort by Prince William County residents to persuade the state public utilities commission to make Amazon pay for a 6-mile transmission line to power its data center in Haymarket. Despite support from the commission’s staff for the idea, the effort failed — and the cost of the line is still being borne by all ratepayers. A decade later, the issue is again before the State Corporation Commission.
This article mentions The Piedmont Environmental Council.
Va. Dept. of Conservation and Recreation
(July 28, 2026)
Historic funding for the Virginia Agricultural Best Management Practices Cost-Share Program (VACS) will empower farmers and protect water quality. This record-setting funding underscores Virginia’s continued commitment to improving water quality, supporting agricultural producers and meeting Chesapeake Bay and local stream restoration goals through voluntary, farmer-led conservation practices.
Gizmodo
(July 27, 2026)
A Detroit reporter named Mike Duffy of WXYZ-TV captured a story about a data center emitting what sounds like a demonic scream that seems like it makes every second in this community a form of torture I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. The noise is there “24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Duffy says. And people live right across the street.
Inc.
(July 27, 2026)
The fight over Vantage Data Centers’ self-powered campus shows how bypassing the grid can expose AI infrastructure companies to health claims, lawsuits, and community opposition.
AP News
(July 24, 2026)
Virginia, the world’s largest data center hub, has released a long-delayed study that examined the state’s eastern region groundwater supply and the resource-hungry industry’s possible impact on it, finding declines are likely in a critical aquifer due to population growth and industrial use and urging stricter regulations.
NBC Washington
(July 24, 2026)
Just before 8 a.m. Wednesday, electricity flickered on and off for about 10 minutes. An engineer’s data says it happened throughout the Eastern half of the U.S., from Chicago, to Boston and Miami. He ties the problem to Data Center Alley in Ashburn, Virginia, and says the seemingly small blip is a sign our infrastructure is in danger.
The Piedmont Journal Recorder
(July 27, 2026)
DuCard Vineyards invites you to a free one-time screening of Virginia Public Media’s stunning new documentary Shenandoah on Sunday, August 2, 2026, 4 to 6:30 p.m., at The Barn at Stony Brook in Madison County. This special event is a wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon with family and friends while taking in the amazing story of our neighbor, Shenandoah National Park and the surrounding Blue Ridge area.
Bay Journal
(July 16, 2026)
The 80-foot-by-30-foot vessel serves as a floating platform for specially designed cages used to raise mussels. A pair of “floating upwellers” holds up to 4,000 mussels at any one time in the river throughout the year while keeping them off the bottom, where they would be susceptible to being smothered by sediment.
C-VILLE Weekly
(July 29, 2026)
To understand why that matters, you need to know a little about the interconnected system that supplies our water. The water flowing from your tap comes to you, through a treatment plant, from one of several local reservoirs. And the water that fills those reservoirs comes largely from the land and the rivers around them.
C-VILLE Weekly
(July 29, 2026)
Shortly before the pandemic in March 2020, former University of Virginia president Jim Ryan announced an initiative to contribute land for the development of up to 1,500 affordable housing units in Albemarle County and Charlottesville. While none have yet been built, UVA officials remain committed to moving forward at three sites. Each is at a various point in the development process.
C-VILLE Weekly
(July 29, 2026)
Anyone who wants to set up a large-scale poultry operation in Virginia has to get a permit from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to demonstrate how heavy amounts of waste will be prevented from getting into the watershed.
The Daily Progress
(July 24, 2026)
A "minor fuel spill" from a barge at the Ragged Mountain Reservoir poses no clear threat to the area's water supply, according to the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority.
The Daily Progress
(July 24, 2026)
he developers behind a proposed mixed-use project in Charlottesville's Fifeville neighborhood are committed to including a grocery store, but it won't be a cooperative. The news not only leaves the project plans in limbo, but brings no satisfation to Fifeville residents who have long complained the neighborhod is a "food desert."
The Daily Progress
(July 23, 2026)
Even if Charlottesville City Council wanted to halt or slow the development of a student housing project in the city's Fifeville neighborhood, it cannot. The city’s zoning code allows the Mark, a proposed seven-story, 179-unit apartment complex catering to University of Virginia students, to proceed by right without additional review by Council or the city Planning Commission.
The Crozet Gazette
(July 3, 2026)
The nearly $2 million infrastructure project includes critical safety compliance and structural upgrades to the park’s two aging earthen dams after the state determined both had “high-hazard” potential and insufficient spillway capacity.
Culpeper Star-Exponent
(July 28, 2026)
Growing up on a small sheep farm in Rockbridge County taught Jacob Ivins an important lesson: no two farms operate the same way. It's a lesson that shaped his interest in agriculture and one he hopes to bring to producers across Culpeper County in his new role with Virginia Cooperative Extension.
Culpeper Star-Exponent
(July 25, 2026)
Visitors on horseback can traverse various trail loop lengths from two to eight miles for short visits and full-day excursions while following markers at key intersections across the Brandy Station Battlefield, according to a release from Culpeper Battlefield Tours, trail project sponsor.
Culpeper Star-Exponent
(July 23, 2026)
Culpeper Town Code did not previously address motorcycle parking until the owners of Fulton Moto brought the request to the town in support of their bi-monthly Bikes & Coffee meetups held downtown since 2024. Since, thousands of motorcyclists have visited the town, a situation that is creating some mixed feelings.
Culpeper Times
(July 20, 2026)
FiberLync officials say construction on the Culpeper Fiber Project is underway, with thousands of feet of conduit installed and permitting continuing as the company works toward expanding high-speed internet service across the county.
Fauquier Times
(July 30, 2026)
Citizens for Fauquier County had asked to be a named a party on a lawsuit involving the Amazon data center, which was approved by the Warrenton Town Council back in 2023 for a site near U.S. 29 and Blackwell Road. But the attorney representing Amazon said CFFC was not aggrieved by the board of zoning appeals decision and thus was not guaranteed a seat at the defense table.
Fauquier Now
(July 27, 2026)
Fauquier Habitat for Humanity is now able to subdivide a property at 135 and 143 Haiti St., reversing a Warrenton Board of Zoning Appeals decision and allowing the nonprofit to sell the home as a duplex.
The Piedmont Journal Recorder
(July 29, 2026)
It’s finally Greene County’s turn. Today, at 4 p.m., the Greene Farm and Livestock Show grounds open as youngsters begin exhibiting their projects.
Poultry judging begins this afternoon, and sheep and goats hit the ring at 6:30 p.m. Friday night, at 6:30 p.m. beef and swine project animals give it a go.
The Daily Progress
(July 28, 2026)
The proposal to limit public comment to Greene County residents who can prove their place of residence comes hot on the heels of a board meeting earlier this month where officials fielded multiple complaints that residents of Charlottesville and other locales were stealing the spotlight from county residents. It also follows the Greene County board's failed attempt last year to prohibit county employees from speaking to the press.
Free Enterprise Forum
(July 28, 2026)
Adapted from Comments to the Greene County Board of Supervisors July 28, 2026: My name is Neil Williamson, and I am what is known locally as a “newbie”. I have only lived in Greene for 26 years. I also serve as the President of the Free Enterprise Forum. I am speaking this evening in opposition to your tabled proposed bylaws change regarding matters from the public.
These comments mention the Piedmont Environmental Council.
Loudoun Now
(July 30, 2026)
Amazon Data Services yesterday filed a site plan to build data centers on the property it purchased earlier this year from George Washington University. The site plan covers only a portion of the campus, most of which is currently undeveloped. However, that land also houses a university building along Academic Way.
Loudoun Times-Mirror
(July 30, 2026)
As a result of multiple business partnerships and a passionate school community, Kenneth Culbert Elementary School in Hamilton is reaping the rewards of a new courtyard garden learning space, according to Meg Miles, division instructional coach for Loudoun County Public Schools. The school has added a “Green Team Garden Club” to work on the gardens and harvest the crops, which are still growing strong, Miles said.
Washington Business Journal
(July 30, 2026)
Teresa Miller, Loudoun County's zoning administrator, has issued an opinion stating that a 26-year-old ordinance likening data center uses to offices is obsolete in response to a July 12 request from Loudoun's head of economic development to clarify the county's data center zoning policies amid confusion from developers over where their applications stand amid recent legislative changes tied to data centers.
Loudoun Now
(July 28, 2026)
Loudoun County, Loudoun Valley Estates Homeowners Association and the HOA Roundtable are filing to appeal a ruling by the State Corporation Commission on routing for an eastern Loudoun transmission line project to the Virginia Supreme Court. Which route that line should take has been a controversial issue with all but one of the originally proposed routes requiring agreement by either the Board of Supervisors or School Board.
Loudoun Now
(July 28, 2026)
Data centers have become one of the county’s most controversial issues with some community members touting their tax revenue contributions, community contributions and as infrastructure needed to support the internet. Others raise concerns with emissions from diesel generators used as backup power sources for the large buildings, noise, environmental impacts and the impacts from electrical infrastructure needed to provide them power.
Loudoun Now
(July 27, 2026)
Efforts by the Department of Parks, Recreation and CommunityServices to build a recreation complex for western Loudoun are one-step closer as the application last week moved to review by the county’s Planning Commission. The 142-acre property, slated to have outdoor park facilities and an indoor recreation center, is located just west of Purcellville and south of the Rt. 7 bypass.
Loudoun Now
(July 27, 2026)
The National Trust for Historic Preservation capped off its Justice for All series on Saturday at Oatlands, where descendants of the plantation’s enslaved families gathered with scholars, musicians, preservationists, and community members to focus on a more complete telling of America’s history.
Loudoun Times-Mirror
(July 27, 2026)
The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors isn’t reconvening until September, but it started its annual recess with a bang. The board voted July 22 to examine a potential data center moratorium, and local regulations on data center backup generators. But supervisors also voted on land use, housing, transportation and more.
Loudoun Times-Mirror
(July 24, 2026)
Applause filled the Loudoun County board room July 23 as the county Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend denial of the proposed 325-acre Spring Valley Technology Park data center campus, which included 12 data centers, three substations, and fuel cell energy storage. The vote capped a late night of public testimony as residents urged the county to deny the application.
Loudoun Now
(July 24, 2026)
The Town of Middleburg moved into mandatory water conservation mode today amid continuing concerns about falling groundwater levels. Although drought conditions have improved across the commonwealth in recent weeks, groundwater supplies remain at “emergency” status in most of the state, including in Loudoun County.
Loudoun Now
(July 24, 2026)
Loudoun’s Planning Commission was met with an unusually full boardroom Thursday night as it convened to consider an application to build 3.25 million square feet of data center space in 10 data center buildings, three substations, and a backup power storage facility along Evergreen Mills Road. The commission rejected the proposal soundly.
WJLA-ABC7News
(July 24, 2026)
A recent power failure on July 16 forced the Vantage Data Centers Ashburn II campus along Glenn Drive in Sterling to switch over to auxiliary power. That power is supplied by diesel generators on the 18-acre campus, which houses three data centers. Neighbors describe a constant hum at all hours of the day, but said the generators made things even louder and caused the area to get choked in fumes.
Loudoun Now
(July 22, 2026)
A training center that helps prepare the next generation of professional baseball players is looking to finalize its move to a facility in Hamilton but is meeting resistance from some residents who say it’s not the right fit for their rural neighborhood.
The Piedmont Journal Recorder
(July 27, 2026)
DuCard Vineyards invites you to a free one-time screening of Virginia Public Media’s stunning new documentary Shenandoah on Sunday, August 2, 2026, 4 to 6:30 p.m., at The Barn at Stony Brook in Madison County. This special event is a wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon with family and friends while taking in the amazing story of our neighbor, Shenandoah National Park and the surrounding Blue Ridge area.
The Daily Progress
(July 29, 2026)
Six days after reopening a lake after E. coli levels forced its closure, the Lake of the Woods gated subdisivion in Orange County has closed it again after water tests at Keaton’s Lake indicate concentrations of potentially toxic cyanobacteria, a blue-green algae.
Rappahannock News
(July 29, 2026)
More than 100 Rappahannock residents packed a hearing on whether to move the county library to a new “rent-free” building, exposing divisions over ownership, access and transparency.
Rappahannock News
(July 27, 2026)
Fly fisherman Roger Flinchum remembers evenings when Rappahannock County streams were alive with fish. “I might go 100 yards and catch 20 or 30 fish,” said the retired Rappahannock County High School teacher, who has been fly fishing since the 1970s. Today, many of those same streams tell a different story.
Fauquier Now
(July 28, 2026)
Scores of western Prince William residents turned out to a rally outside Patriot High School in Nokesville Thursday night to protest Dominion Energy’s planned Nokesville-to-Bristow 230-kilovolt power line through the community’s rural land. Local farmers also turned out to the protest – some with tractors in tow – to advocate for the 6.5-mile line’s burial.
Fauquier Times
(July 21, 2026)
Prince William County supervisors advanced two separate plans to build thousands of new homes in rural Gainesville Tuesday, bucking concerns raised by the county's professional planning staff. The supervisors voted 5-3 to initiate comprehensive plan amendments for two housing proposals next to the Manassas National Battlefield Park and near what was the Prince William Digital Gateway corridor.
Bay Journal
(July 6, 2026)
Through acts of the Maryland General Assembly, thousands of acres of forests in Western Maryland have been preserved as “wildlands.” State law requires those lands to be managed in a way that “will leave them unimpaired” for future generations. NextEra Energy Transmission MidAtlantic wants to clear-cut those wooded acres to support the construction of a 107-mile overhead transmission line from Pennsylvania to Virginia.
WVTF
(July 31, 2026)
Governor Abigail Spanberger has not yet called lawmakers back to the Capitol for a special session. But she’s facing a growing list of people calling for one to extend the timeline for state regulators to make a decision about allowing for a merger of Dominion Energy and Florida-based NextEra Energy.
Virginia Mercury
(July 31, 2026)
Every four years, Virginia law requires the governor’s administration to develop a new energy plan outlining the commonwealth’s energy needs and how the state intends to meet its power generation goals. Chief Energy Officer Josephus Allmond, Secretary of Commerce and Trade Carrie Chenery and Department of Energy representatives have been hosting invite-only stakeholder meetings across the state to gather input.
Virginia Mercury
(July 30, 2026)
Loudoun County, ground zero of Data Center Alley and home to over 250 of the power-hungry digital warehouse facilities, is considering a pause on all new data center project applications, officials said this week.
Cardinal News
(July 30, 2026)
This column isn’t about the pros and cons of the Valley Link project, though. It’s about the political tensions that the opposition to this project helps expose. Many of those tensions are present with other energy projects; this one is just bigger than most, so therefore more interesting.
WAMU
(July 30, 2026)
A new Politico investigation explores the unprecedented steps taken by Virginia’s environmental regulators in response to a report detailing serious health risks posed by the state’s only self-powered data center. According to internal emails shared with Politico, some DEQ staffers pushed back, arguing the agency wasn’t equipped to weigh in on health effects tied to pollution it regulates.
This article mentions The Piedmont Environmental Council
Data Center Knowledge
(July 29, 2026)
Amazon urged Virginia regulators during hearings this month to allow hyperscale data center operators to voluntarily fund transmission infrastructure serving their campuses, opening a debate over who should pay for grid expansions needed to support AI.
WVTF
(July 29, 2026)
The State Corporation Commission has six months to make a decision about a potential merger between Virginia’s largest utility, Dominion Energy, and Florida-based NextEra Energy. And that six-month deadline is not enough time, says Lieutenant Governor Ghazala Hashmi. She says she supports a special session to give regulators more time.
Virginia Mercury
(July 28, 2026)
From the driveway of his Louisa home and business, Austin Newsome sees dozens of dump trucks barrel down Route 33 most days, hauling dirt and other debris. The road is stained rusty red from the soil displaced by the construction of Amazon’s latest data center campus in the county.
Bay Journal
(July 28, 2026)
Virginia’s first commercial land-based wind farm will soon rise from oak-heath woodlands along a ridgeline in Botetourt County, about 30 miles north of Roanoke. The project, Rocky Forge Wind, is in the final stages of construction. But environmentalists and local landowners are worried about the project’s impact to the mountain ecosystem.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(July 28, 2026)
On Monday, Spanberger elevated Vincent Maiden to director of the Virginia Department of Energy, where he has worked for four years after a long career at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, during which he oversaw programs to clean up polluted land for new economic uses while protecting groundwater.
ABC 13 News
(July 28, 2026)
The board voted 3-1 to move forward with creating the commission, rather than siding with a recommendation from the county's Planning Commission, which had unanimously supported holding a public forum to gather additional information about issues including water supply and demand.
Cardinal News
(July 27, 2026)
The Henry County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to act Tuesday on a measure that might be cheered at home but could set the county on a collision course with state government. This year, the General Assembly passed, and the governor signed into law, a bill to “ban the bans.” That law says localities can no longer ban solar projects outright; they have to consider each one separately.
VPM
(July 27, 2026)
Local governments are trying to figure out ways to stop data center development, or at least hit the pause button for a while. The city of Chesapeake is hitting the pause button on data centers, declaring an eight-month moratorium while they craft new regulations for the water-guzzling, power-hungry facilities.
WRIC
(July 24, 2026)
Staff at the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) have recommended the denial of a nonprofit’s motion to pause the review of a $67 billion deal slated to be one of the largest utility mergers in U.S. history. Clean Virginia filed the motion earlier this week citing “major gaps” in the companies’ application and unanswered questions over how the acquisition would be structured, among other factors.
ABC 13 News
(July 24, 2026)
Virginia is facing one of its worst droughts in more than 20 years, and officials say it won't take just one good storm to turn things around. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality says it hasn't seen drought conditions this severe since 2002.
Cardinal News
(July 24, 2026)
The next chapter in Virginia’s data center economy should not be guided solely by recruitment strategies developed during the industry’s rapid expansion. It should be guided by a broader public-interest framework that integrates economic development, energy, transmission, land use, water resources, taxpayer protection and long-term stewardship.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
(July 21, 2026)
The 2026 Virginia General Assembly session will go down as one of the most memorable in recent history. While it may have received less attention, a series of legislative successes has provided localities with new tools to increase the supply of affordable housing.
Virginia Mercury
(July 28, 2026)
Just days before the Oregon Legislature in March passed a one-year pause on a popular tax incentive program for data centers, a group called Oregon Connects registered as a nonprofit business in the state. Then the ads started appearing.
WAMU
(July 28, 2026)
Data centers are everywhere in the news right now and for good reason. Many projects are planned or under construction across the country. They’re backed by hundreds of billions of dollars in investment from the biggest tech companies in the world. They power not just artificial intelligence, but pretty much everything that happens online – your streaming, your email, your cloud storage. But they’re not without their drawbacks.
Latitude Media
(July 28, 2026)
When a transmission line faulted in Northern Virginia last week, some three gigawatts of data center load disconnected from the grid and switched to back-up diesel power. While the grid operator and Dominion Energy said they stabilized the grid within about 10 minutes and avoided any outages, the event underscored the growing risks that data centers pose to grid reliability.
The New York Times
(July 27, 2026)
The bill had started out as a tax rebate for fiber-optic equipment. Rewriting the bill was a critical part of a nine-month process that Meta used to cut deals behind the scenes, avoid local opposition and offload financial risk, according to interviews with more than 40 people and a review of corporate filings, tax records, property records and meeting transcripts. The secrecy was agreed to by nearly everyone involved, from utility executives to the governor’s office to a local elected official who knew about the talks with Meta and sold 300 acres of his own property for the project.
