Publisher’s Note: This piece reflects the opinions of the author and the author only. These views do not represent The Leesburg Times Media Company.

When I look at the woods near my home in Adams County, I see flowing streams and ancient trees, but more than that, I see the place that raised me. I’ve spent my life fighting to protect our history, because in Appalachia, we know that when something is gone, it’s not coming back. But recently, the biggest threat to our community hasn’t been a lack of interest. It’s the sudden, uninvited arrival of hyperscale data centers. I got into this fight because I realized that the people deciding the future of our hills and hollows have never actually set foot in them. They see maps and utility grids; I see the water, land, farms, small businesses, and families who are being evicted and pushed aside.

While these multi-billion-dollar companies promise progress, their physical footprint is creating a life of permanent scarcity. We’re talking about facilities that demand roughly 1.3 gigawatts of power, enough to strain an entire regional grid, and can consume more than a million gallons of water every day just for cooling. When you start multiplying that by a complex of five or more facilities, the scale gets obscene fast. They are clear-cutting thousands of acres of forest for massive metal boxes, fragmenting biodiverse ecosystems that have remained untouched for generations. Calling this ‘development’ is a lie. This is desertification. These sites rely on aquifers that take tens of thousands of years to recharge; at the rate these facilities consume water, we could be looking at empty wells in a matter of years.¹ You can’t farm without water, and you certainly can’t give cattle bottled water.

Beyond the water crisis, we’re facing the invisible threat of forever chemicals. These PFAS compounds, used in industrial processes, inevitably leach into our water supply and drinking water. They cannot be filtered by our standard water treatment facilities, introducing another toxic liability into our lives.² And as the forest falls, so does our heritage. Our dark skies, protected for the Moeller Observatory, are being drowned in industrial light pollution, and rare, endangered species are being demolished in the name of crypto mining and surveillance processing.

If these projects are really the economic miracle they claim to be, why do they have to be hidden from the people who will live with the consequences? Local officials, economic development directors, clerks, and commissioners are signing NDAs while residents are expected to stay quiet. In Maysville, 28 of our neighbors, many of them elderly and disabled, are being kicked out of their homes by an unnamed AI developer to make room for a data center. That’s not progress. That is displacement. It is an extractive industry dressed up as an opportunity, and it treats our land like a commodity and our people like they are in the way. For generations, we have lived here, farmed here, and managed our own water without needing this. But now, we are being forced to sacrifice our community for big tech’s AI training.

We don’t have to sit quietly while they clear-cut our future behind closed doors. To keep our water intact for the next generation, we must demand transparency right now. Show up to your county commissioner and township trustee meetings. Demand that our local officials refuse to sign NDAs. They work for us, not for unnamed, multi-billion-dollar tech developers. We have spent generations building a life of self-reliance in these hills. Let’s show these developers that our water, our farms, and our communities are not for sale. You can’t drink data, and we won’t let them leave us dry.

_{Copyright © 2026 Dylan Lloyd. Publishing rights granted to the Leesburg Times Media Company.}

_{¹This estimate is based on industry-average water use characteristics for large-scale data centers, informed by Environmental Law Institute, Data Centers and Water Fact Sheet (January 2026).}
²_{Studies show PFAS may be harmful to human health, informed by the Environmental Protection Agency, Our Current Understanding of the Human Health and Environmental Risks of PFAS (April 2026).}