The Roanoke Worker’s Assembly sets its mission to organize the unorganized workers of the Roanoke Valley. We stand with and for the people who live, work, and learn in the Roanoke area. We are here to voice our opposition to the construction of a proposed Data Center in Botetourt County. This data center puts the finances, safety, ecology, and well-being of the entire Roanoke Valley at risk. It represents the sale of all of our futures for immediate, private greed.
Water is essential for our lives, our habitats, urban green spaces, food, animals, and our futures. We are fortunate to live in an area blessed with sufficient, clean water from Carvin’s Cove. We may have to pay the Western Virginia Water Authority to access this common good, but it rightfully belongs to all of us. The decision to allow Google, a $3 trillion company, to pilfer this common good for nothing more than their billionaire profits is a betrayal of the people who live here.
According to your website, the Water Authority was created, in part, as a response to the 2002 drought. The Water Authority understood, correctly, that water systems are not determined by property lines and that a holistic approach is the best way to steward the water resources we have. The creation of this data center will make the residents of the Roanoke Valley more susceptible to the ongoing climate crisis – a crisis being powered in large part by Data Centers! As temperatures rise and weather events become more extreme, draining the Carvin’s Cove reservoir puts our communities at risk. Those millions of gallons can and should be our safeguard against the worst effects of climate change. People will die being denied the water that will flow into the Data Center!
The so-called economic benefits of the Data Center are overstated and will not go to the workers of Roanoke. The construction of the building will employ some people for a time, but these jobs will be short-lived. The 50 full-time positions that Google touts pale in comparison to the hundreds of millions of dollars in lost tax revenue used to entice Google to take what belongs to the people of the Roanoke Valley. The Data Center precludes that land and water from being used for productive purposes, like growing food or manufacturing things that people genuinely need. Instead, the Water Authority appears content to funnel our precious resources into the greedy maw of trillion-dollar companies chasing a fever dream of even more money at the cost of our environment and our neighbors.
Fundamentally, the sale of land and plans for the Data Center, done through backroom deals and without public input, has left the people of the Roanoke Valley vulnerable, and without a voice. The Botetourt County Board of Directors secretly greenlit this plan without consulting us. The Roanoke City Council limply inquired as to why their input was not sought. This speaks to a greater injustice. That a trillion dollar company back doored its way to our shared resources. And even then, there is hardly a single politician willing to stand firmly against this data center.
We demand that this board resolve to leave this grave decision to the people.
We demand a referendum be held as to the ultimate fate of this data center.
To the workers listening, we will tell you that a referendum will not happen. For the same reason that your boss cancels your time off, or tells you it’s okay to work in the heat. This board thinks they know better than us. This board knows that the people of Roanoke Valley will not sacrifice our futures for billionaire profits.
To the board:
You and the other politicians that moved this issue forward without the consent of the governed:
I speak as representative to all the unorganized workers in this valley.
We are not stupid.
We are not braindead.
We know the consequences of this data center.
We know that it will bring some scant few jobs, perhaps even a few high paying ones.
But we also know that it will put our drinking water at risk, raise our utility bills, and make the air buzz.
The workers of this valley are not ignorant, we are simply unorganized. And you make these decisions under that privilege, and that privilege alone. With every injustice brought unto us, we become more agitated, more educated, and more organized. There will come a day when the Southern Worker is organized and their voice is amplified. Then, you will have no choice but to listen.
We encourage those interested in fighting against the Google Data Center to get involved with the Southwest Virginia Data Center Transparency Alliance. Follow them on Instagram or check out their linktr.ee for future meetings and action items. You can also read any further Google Data Center updates by visiting (and supporting!) The Roanoke Rambler.
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