GIRLS SOCCER: Patriot, Brentsville off to hot starts. Battlefield, too. SPORTS, PAGES 12-13.
April 7, 2022 | Vol. 21, No. 14 | www.princewilliamtimes.com | $1.00 Covering Prince William County and surrounding communities, including Gainesville, Haymarket, Dumfries, Occoquan, Quantico and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park.
Residents push back on Dominion’s plans to bury coal ash at Possum Point By Jill Palermo
Times Staff Writer
PHOTO BY PETER CARY
How it started: Western Prince William County landowners Mary Ann Ghadban, left, and Page Snyder, right, fought development along their rural Pageland Lane for decades. Then, in 2019, they decided to pursue a new data center corridor known as the “PW Digital Gateway.” Within a year, about 100 of their neighbors followed their lead.
From horse farms to data farms
How 102 rural landowners came to agree to sell their 1,600 acres to data centers
Dominion Energy’s plan to leave its 4.6 million cubic yards of toxic coal ash in a new landfill on Possum Point was met with a barrage of questions from skeptical residents this week who expressed concerns about everything from truck traffic to health impacts to what a new 190-foot-tall landfill would look like on the banks of the Potomac River. About 60 people turned out to Potomac Shores Middle School on Monday, April 4, to express concerns about Dominion Energy’s plan for closing its remaining coal ash pond at the utility’s Possum Point power plant, which Dominion officials first revealed in a sparsely attended virtual meeting in January. The meeting was held at the request of Supervisor Andrea Bailey, D-Potomac, who asked Dominion to repeat its presentation in person to allow residents who live along Possum Point Road and in nearby neighborhoods such as Potomac Shores, Cherry Hill and Southbridge to ask questions. The result was a two-hour session during which residents mostly expressed doubts about Dominion officials’ claim that burying the coal ash in a double-lined landfill at the power plant would be the cheapest, fastest and least disruptive option for area residents. See COAL ASH, page 2
By Peter Cary
Contributing Writer
Quite remarkably, Mary Ann Ghadban and Page Snyder – two Prince William horse farmers turned data farm enthusiasts -- put together a proposal that could forever change Prince William County’s rural landscape. In little more than a year, they assembled a dozen landowners willing to sell their collective 800 acres, found a data center developer willing to buy it and applied for a land-use change with the county to make it happen. But perhaps even more remarkable – but less well known – was the coming together of an even larger group of landowners in the same stretch of rural northwest Prince William County. In well under a year, this group, initially left out of Ghadban’s and Snyder’s plan, grew to encompass 90 landowners with 98 parcels totaling 805 acres. The aggregation of young and old, longtime farmers and McMansion-dwelling newcomers, have all signed contracts to sell their properties to a data center operator, too -- if the county approves the needed land-use and zoning changes to make it a reality. “It was a remarkable, a Herculean effort,” said Mike Grossman, one of several key residents who managed and led the effort. “We were told by experts, by data center [land] purchasers, by
How it’s going: Some of the 102 rural western Prince William County landowners who have signed contracts to sell their acreage to data centers if the Prince William Board of County Supervisors allows their land to be replanned for industrial uses. This group attended a community meeting at Battlefield High School on March 31 to speak in support of opening rural land to data centers. attorneys, that it would never happen.” The story is even more surprising because it was not a top-down effort, Grossman and others said. There were organizers, and some people played key roles. But the impetus came from the bottom up. “Really it was just grassroots,” said Kenn Knarr, one of the property owners and facilitators. “And everybody kind of came to a consensus. It just gradually grew and grew and grew to the number it’s gotten to now.” See FARMS, page 4
Farmers markets open in Manassas, Woodbridge, page 9
TIMES STAFF PHOTO/JILL PALERMO
Former county supervisor Hilda Barg speaks against Dominion Energy’s plan to bury 4 million tons of coal ash at its Possum Point power plant outside Dumfries.
Upcoming events, page 10
88 DULLES, VA