A data center opened next door. Then came the high-pitched whine

> Stephenson said the data center’s operations team had not seen any “abnormalities” on the day in question.

> “However, we take any reports of issues at the site seriously,” Stephenson wrote

Absolutely no abnormalities because this is by design, but nobody wanted to pay attention when approving the building and zoning. Amazing what some money to politicians will get you.

I can't even imaging living within ear shot of these things. Horrific quality of life. I can't sleep when my water pump is active.

> Turner said county officials didn’t understand in 2022 and 2023 exactly what it meant to have gas turbines at a data center, nor did they have zoning rules to address it.

Well then why were they allowed to vote on it ? It's incompetance ? Or just straight up corruption.

I feel like the world needs more sound engineers. There's a constant humming of the machines and we all suffer for it. We also need more vigilance about preventing noise pollution. The beep, beep, beep may make a company feel like it is doing something for safety, but there is no counterforce that they have to answer to about what they are doing to everyone else not involved. (I know there is a better sound to replace beep beep beep but it hasn't made it to my neighborhood yet)

Great video from Benn Jordan on data center noise causing illness to nearby residents: https://youtu.be/_bP80DEAbuo

This just happened up north, apparently the largest proposed AI data center in Canada (Synapse's $10B 1GW campus in Olds, Alberta) was just put on pause after the Utilities Commission rejected its power application on March 6, 2026 due to noise pollution concerns from 20 gas turbines, 10 steam generators, and up to 600 diesel backups near 800 homes (just 200m away). The assessments failed to model cumulative worst-case noise. The proposal will be revised and resubmitted of course but the concern isn't going to go away.

I offer you a chatbot in this troubling time

This is where zoning rules make sense.

There are all kinds of externalities that we fail to accommodate in our market pricing.

The article very very carefully avoids contextualizing this site, so as a service, here you go:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Sully+Rd,+Centreville,+VA/...

The aerial photo in the article makes the whole thing a little funny to me.

Person who probably has never lived next to an industrial site disappointed to find they don't like living next to an industrial site.

This is why we have zoning laws.

I've seen a few videos with the audible whine heard from people's houses even super far away from these datacenters. Guess we'll see in a few years whether they were worth building in the first place or whether they end up abandoned once the bubble bursts.

Can anyone provide a breakdown for what all these new data centers are used for?

Is this storage? If so, storing what?

Is this for AI/processing? If so, doing what?

Sane municipalities, counties, and states have noise restrictions for power generation equipment, most of the AHJs in my metro area require no more than 60dB of noise from 100’ away for a generator, that would easily prevent gas turbines from operating.

It’s common enough that generator manufacturers make different levels of enclosures to comply with noise regulations.

It’s likely impossible to use gas turbines to generate power in my state unless they’re very far away from anyone, rules linked below. The only type of land with no noise restrictions is undeveloped land, so you can operate forestry equipment but not gas turbines.

States that allow gas turbines anywhere near their residents homes does not give a shit about them, probably it’s a perfect circle venn diagram with states that reject expanded Medicare funding.

https://www.pca.state.mn.us/sites/default/files/p-gen6-01.pd...

Low-frequency noise is insidious and an assault on your sanity. Wind turbines are bad for it. And hea_t pump$ to a lesser extent.

Blocking low-frequency noise requires very heavy, well-designed construction, and retrofitting a typical dwelling to achieve large reductions is difficult and expensive.

This means all the blame goes onto the perpetrators – the developers, the politicians – because for all intents and purposes, residents can't do anything to stop it.

the comments here are better than the article lol

Genuine question but is the problem datacenters or more specifically AI specific datacenters?

Because all these talks of data-center disrupting everyday's life from all the videos I have watched somehow now involve the AI/GPU aspect which have definitely made things more energy intensive and more water intensive

But more specifically compute focused datacenters actually feel somewhat good/neutral to the region and you still need remote hands etc. so net employment.

Although one of the ideas I have with that is it would be better if the owner of the said datacenter either belonged to the community/cared about it and wasn't a massive corporation for example too.

It's the AI bubble which is the issue which has caused a Datacenter frenzy as nameless corporations take massive debts to build them and scramble to do so and cause issues in the process.