Corps skips public hearing on Google's Botetourt data center campus
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will not hold a public hearing on Google's three-building data center plan despite 282 requests.
BOTETOURT COUNTY — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has decided not to hold a public hearing on Google's planned data center campus at the Greenfield Industrial Center, Cardinal News reported Oct. 30. The Corps' Norfolk District received 282 requests for a hearing during a spring comment period, according to the report.
The campus, called Project Raspberry and developed with Helio Capital LLC, would include three data centers, substations and an office building. The Corps' public notice says about 120 acres of forested habitat in the range of the endangered Indiana bat would be removed, a figure the report says was unverified when the notice was issued. Google filed its Corps permit application in January, and the Corps opened public comment from March 10 to April 9.
Corps public affairs chief Mark Haviland said a hearing would not add relevant information within the agency's regulatory authority, and that declining one does not approve the project. Federal rules call for a hearing unless the issues raised are insubstantial. The Southwest Virginia Data Center Transparency Alliance, which pushed for a hearing, argues that important facts emerged after the comment period closed.
State review is separate and still open. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality says it has not received a complete application and is reviewing a water protection permit and a minor new source air permit. Google has said it will use air cooling at at least one of the three buildings and removed stream culverts from its plan in a July 15 response. Grading has already started on the site, according to the report.
Botetourt County officials say the county has no role in the Corps' decision. Google has also announced a separate data center for a Roanoke County technology park.
With no federal hearing, the remaining public checkpoints on the Botetourt campus are the Corps' permit decision and the state's water and air permits.
What's next
- TBD Corps permit decision; no date announced
- TBD DEQ review of water protection and air permit applications continues