MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — Hundreds of people packed a nearly-full auditorium at Spring Mills High School on a rainy Friday night as the community was invited to take part in a ‘town-hall style’ meeting on a proposed large-scale data center planned for the Falling Waters area.
Real estate development firm Penzance Management has announced plans to develop a $4 billion data center campus in Berkeley County.
The data center is planned for 548 acres in the Falling Waters area with a structure that could span 1.9 million square feet.
More than 25 people took to the podium, many expressing concerns about quality of life, noise levels, property values, and their fears about harm to water resources, the land, and wildlife.
Among the consistent themes were questions regarding how HB 2014 got past the local delegation, including the county commission.
A man named Joseph from Greensburg Rd. spoke. “ Some of my basic concerns as far as infrastructure in this place, because we all know this is a done deal,” he said. “It was done in secret. They’ve been laying these green flags out for utility lines and stuff for a long time. Everybody that’s in the know knew it was going to be going on, right? All of a sudden, ‘Oh my goodness, look what they threw on us!,” he said to laughter from the audience.
He also questioned whether data centers could be a public utility.
“I assume you gentlemen up there know what a public utility, the definition of that is,” He said. “A public utility is an organization that maintains the infrastructure for public service. How in the heck is a data center that I’m going to end up having to pay higher electrical bills for and have my groundwater messed up somehow falling under the definition of a utility and getting breaks like that?
Among others who spoke, Christopher Breeze says he came to Berkeley County 46 years ago. His first home was in Bedington where the data center is planned.
“Since then, I’ve seen farms, dairy farms, orchards, all of them disappear. And they’re getting pushed over by bulldozers. “There’s two things here that concern me is, first of all, eminent domain is supposed to be for projects that benefit the public, not benefit private corporations.”
Breeze suggested the county Commission could fight HB2014.
“I’m very concerned about the fact that all of this legislation bypasses all of our democracy,” He said. “My opinion is that I think the Berkeley County Commission as a group should file a lawsuit against the Legislature.
Another man, Frank, spoke about the water table. “There’s an open system that gives up 5,000,000 gallons gallons a day versus a flow system that’s 5,000,000 gallons a year. So that’s 364 fold difference in water use. I’ve been told the flow system is farce because it’s so expensive.
“We’re in the middle of a four year drought. So the water table is dropping as it is and we’re going to allow these companies to come in and suck another 5 million a day, which will also cause wells to dry,” he said.
“They’re exempt from local ordinances. Are they exempt from Clean Water Act permits? Because they’re they’re gonna be poisoning with the water. Our rainwater right now is pH 4.5. 7 is neutral. Burning more coal is only gonna add to that.”
Joanna Gregory took to the podium and spoke quietly. When she did, the crowd cheered her on with applause and affirmations. She told of a half century of life in the area of Bedington Falls.
“I live above the Bedington Falls,” Gregory told the commissioners. “ I’ve been down there for 50 years, and I’m one of four of the houses that this data center will be surrounding.”
“I have paid flood insurance for many years. This data center will be built in a flood zone.”
“The stone house down there, at the Bedington Bridge, that house in the 1936 flood, they came out of the second story of that house in a boat.”
“That’s how high the water can get down there and we deal with flooding every few years,” she said.
“My other concern is our wells. We have shallow wells, me and my neighbor. And we’re concerned, too, when they do all the digging, what happens to our wells?”
She pointed out there are two family cemeteries on the property in her remarks before the commissioners.
Another resident, John, said he thought there would be more back and forth than there was at the town hall.
Neither commissioner addressed the public aside from their initial statements.
“I’m looking to ask questions, he said, adding, “I thought it was going to be a little more back and forth here, but I guess not.
He questioned when exactly the commissioners knew about the bill, and the large data center project.
“This bill was passed back in late 2024,” John said. “My research actually indicates that the planning for this data center in Berkeley County goes back to 2023. So clearly this is a plan that’s been in the work for a while.”
“The commission is in charge of, part of approving permits, roads, right, you know, approving projects. Why is it that you’re only finding, as you say about about this bill now?”
“Yes, the 2014 did strip a lot of your local authority away, but it didn’t take it all. “And so I urge you to not be a rubber stamp on this. You do have the ability to pass resolutions to oppose. You still have that ability. You also still have the ability to restore local authority and bring back local control, which is where we all went wrong within this whole business.”
More than one speaker asked about the constitutionality of HB 2014. Katie McInnis, a Morgan County resident is one of the administrators of the No Data Centers in the Eastern Panhandle Facebook page. She insinuated local leaders are being intimidated by the Morrissey administration.
“The people sold their land for this data center did so to avoid Eminent Domain,” she told the crowd. “They are our allies in this. They are not our enemies.”
As to the local leaders, McInnis said, “The people who were quiet when Governor Morrisey made them be — maybe that’s Commissioner Hardy, maybe not. They are our allies at the moment.”
“We make it easier for them to speak up. Governor Morrissey has already directly called people in my county threatening their jobs for speaking out about this,” explaining there is not a plan in Morgan County for such a data center. As for Berkeley County, McInnis said, “I can’t even imagine what is going on here.”
Several of the speakers echoed similar sentiments that the data center idea was being foisted on a county without its consent, and that it amounted to a ‘done deal.’
A few of the speakers prefaced their remarks by saying they aren’t against the concept of data centers.
A good number of those speaking peppered in concerns about the longevity of the 1.9 million square foot structure, saying the technology being planned today would essentially be obsolete in five years. They painted a picture of a large shell of a building that would be left behind empty after irrevocably impacting the community.
The town hall was hosted by Berkeley County Commissioners Eddie Gochenour and John Hardy and moderated by Alonzo Perry.
Prior to the public portion of the event, the commissioners laid out how HB 2014 was enacted and sought to create a distance between themselves and the legislation, which gave authority to the governor’s office to develop micro grids and data centers.
Some of the speakers expressed frustration about HB 2014, even accusing the commission of being in on it, citing Gochenour’s presence at Governor Patrick Morrisey’s announcement of the project.
Others brought up the specter of data centers being considered a public utility and thereby benefitting from eminent domain.
One speaker, Carl, from Hedgesville, questioned the commissioners as to whether they could challenge HB 2014 through Home Rule. Other speakers questioned the constitutionality of the bill.
Throughout the two-hour town hall, some in the crowd yelled out at the two commissioners sporadically, and Perry had to call for order more than a few times.
Berkeley County Sheriff Rob Blair and some of his deputies and deputy reserves were on hand throughout the evening
