A recent report in Loudoun Now states Dominion and Loudoun County officials are working to solve an issue that has led to the power transmission problems.
According to Dominion Energy spokesman Aaron Ruby, the problem in Loudoun affects a small portion, Ashburn, hindered by a lack of transmission infrastructure to power new data centers. Loudoun officials say they are concerned that the issue may stall the development of new power-hungry data centers and server farms that power the internet.
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Drinking water consumed by Prince William County residents received a clean bill of health.
The Prince William County Service Authority recently published its 2022 Water Quality Reports, which provide essential information about the source and characteristics of the utility’s drinking water. The EPA requires the annual reports available on the Prince William Service Authority’s website.
The report from the Prince Wiliam Service Authority outlines data from 2021, the most recent regulatory period. It details the number of regulated substances, like fluoride, barium, and metals in the water and the amount of chlorine used to disinfect the water supply.
“The Service Authority is meeting all required testing, all federal guidelines, and the water is considered safe to drink,” said John DeRosa, regulatory officer for the Prince William Service Authority.
Each of the Service Authority’s four distribution systems – East, West, Hoadly Manor, Bull Run Mountain, and Evergreen – has its own Water Quality Report.
Except for drinking water in the Bull Run Mountain and Evergreen communities, the drinking water distributed by the Service Authority is sourced from the Potomac River, Occoquan Reservoir, and Lake Manassas.
While most of the drinking water the Service Authority provides to customers is treated at facilities owned and operated by Fairfax Water, many customers in the county’s western end receive some water treated at the City of Manassas Water Treatment Plant.
Customers in the Bull Run Mountain and Evergreen communities receive their water from six public groundwater wells located throughout the area.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Virginia Waterworks Regulations require all water utilities to produce annual water quality reports.
Meanwhile, the Service Authority is working to identify the source of PFAS (Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances) in the water supply. While lower than many other water systems at nine parts per trillion (EPA suggests a limit of 70 parts per trillion), the utility is working to find the source of the pollutants.
PFAS is a class of more than 6,000 artificial chemicals used to manufacture various industrial and household products designed to resist heat, water, oil, and stains. Many products are made with PFAS, including non-stick cookware, food packaging, degreaser, personal care products, and water-resistant apparel.
The chemicals enter the water system through stormwater runoff. De Rosa says they’re expensive to remove through water filtration processes like reverse osmosis.
“The levels are so low here, it’s difficult for our technology to detect them,” said DeRosa.
Service Authority customers with questions about water quality or who want a printed copy of their Water Quality Report may contact the Service Authority’s Regulatory Affairs Office at 703-331-4162 or [email protected].
After much back and forth with lawyers representing Sheetz gas stations, the Board of County Supervisors approved a new fueling station and convenience store to be built at Interstate 66 and Route 29 at Gainesville Crossing. It will be the first retail development in a new complex next to a 1,000-space commuter lot.
Micheal Vanderpool of the Manassas-based law firm Vanderpool, Frostick and Nishanian, P.C., representing developer Buchanan Partners, said the Sheetz is the perfect project in an ideal location. Vanderpool petitioned the Board of County Supervisors for a Special Use Permit, a document required before Sheetz could build a planned drive-through lane outside the convenience store, and install gas pumps.
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Its grand opening celebration in 2017 was closed to the public and drew several high-profile business leaders and county officials. The county's economic development office heralded it as a win for the region as it began working to lure data center companies from neighboring Loudoun County, which has the highest concentration of data centers globally.
According to permit data published by the Prince William County Department of Development Services, Iron Mountain will build a $6 million addition to its campus at 11680 Hayden Road, just off Wellington Road near Gainesville.
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Bill Wright
Gainesville
Citizens were recently treated to two more mind-numbing episodes in the surreal story of the Prince William Digital Gateway.
The July 13 Planning Commission meeting featured an exchange where Gainesville commissioner Rick Berry asked acting Planning Office Director Rebecca Horner why there was a work session scheduled to discuss the proposal when neither the Comprehensive Plan update nor the overlay district review was complete.
Ms. Horner’s incredulous reply was, “They [the Supervisors] did not require that type of analysis.” Why is the Prince William Digital Gateway jumping the line to be considered ahead of reviews that ought to precede it?
The following evening, the Planning Office hosted a virtual discussion on the Camoin report that they seem to believe validates all their preconceived notions.
When asked when the County would release detailed information on the land and expected capacity for data centers under development, Director of Economic Development Christina Winn said that non-disclosure agreements protect information.
Is that a joke?
Is she really telling us that information essential to evaluating the necessity for the Prince William Digital Gateway will be withheld from public review and scrutiny at the behest of private corporations that stand to profit from public ignorance?
Unbelievable.
What is driving the contrived urgency to push the Prince William Digital Gateway proposal forward in this illogical sequence? Whose armored car is double-parked outside?
Stop the embarrassment and suspicion surrounding this troubling proposal until the Planning Office can get its act together and its story straight.
Potomac Local News occasionally writes editorials and accepts opinion-based letters to the editor on local issues. Readers may email letters.
As thunder rolled during a summer storm on Tuesday, July 12, residents gathered outside the county government center demanded Wheeler, the highest elected county official, resign from office or face a recall campaign. It's the second call for resignation in as many weeks for a member of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors.
According to Wheeler's 2021 financial disclosure, the Chair listed a 300% increase in purchased stock compared to 2020 in nine data center firms. One of them, Blackstone, Inc., is pushing the Board of County Supervisors to rezone more than 800 acres next to the Manassas National Battlefield Park to build a data center campus.
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The retail and commercial portion of a 153-acre data center site in Gainesville is ready to be developed.
Developer Buchanan Partners says the first tenant at Gainesville Crossing will be a Sheetz gas station on the property at Interstate 66 and Route 29. While it can build a convenience store by-right, the developer is seeking a Special Use Permit to install gas pumps and a drive-through lane for customers to order and pick up food.
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From afar, you might think the only thing happening inside this 120-year-old house is a quilting bee or a Harry Potter cosplaying game.
But if you got closer to the door at 15101 Washington Street in Haymarket, they would hear the sounds of blues riffs, rhythmic drumming, and powerful vocals, all of which make up the sounds of rock and roll. Once they passed through the doorway, you knew that you'd entered the School of Rock.
The School of Rock opened in Haymarket in July 2017 as part of a franchise first founded in Philadelphia in 1998. Since its founding, the school boasts over 350 locations worldwide with over 40,000 students.
According to manager Mary Hitchcock, the school currently has 12 teachers and is growing and seeking to hire more.
The school goes beyond the typical one-on-one lessons between student and teacher with the instrument of choice. They also teach from their eponymously named School of Rock method. This method not only includes one-on-one instruction but group instruction, stage performance, learning music theory methods, and learning one song at a time.
This method struggled under the Coronavirus pandemic and, like many other businesses, had to adapt to the situation at hand.
"Like it was for everyone else, the pandemic was a tough transition," says Hitchcock. " We did switch to online lessons and continued our group rehearsals online. We explored many new ways to approach teaching and convey concepts that we now use in person!"
With the pandemic winding down, the school has been able to return not just to in-person teaching but to live performances by its students. According to Hitchcock, the school's house band has four shows in May. The school is offering summer instruction not just in instrument instruction but also in songwriting and recording.
"Currently, we are offering many summer camps which are filling up quickly, one of which is a songwriting camp and recording camp, " says Hitchcock. "Many of our teachers have a music technology background and have taught production and mixing."
School of Rock is currently preparing its performance groups for two shows in May, focusing on popular rock groups The Beatles and AC/DC and hair metal bands like Motley Crue, Poison, and others.
School of Rock will perform at 90 Grados located at 8509 Rixlew Lane in Manassas at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 14, and then at the Craftworx Taproom located at 5615 Wellington Drive in Gainesville at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 21.
According to a 9-1-1 caller, a goat is on the loose near Haymarket.
Police and animal control were called to Merchants View Square, a shopping center off Dominion Valley Drive anchored by a Giant Food store, at about 8 a.m. According to initial reports, a goat was walking along a retaining wall at the shopping center.
According to initial reports, this was not the first time the animal paid a visit to the shopping center.
Police were unable to find the animal.
Once eyed for a Disney Park in the early 1990s, the land on which the Dominion Valley became a neighborhood of single-family homes by the mid-2000s. The neighborhood sits about three miles from downtown Haymarket.
