Amazon files for water permits for second data campus in Louisa County

In August 2023, Amazon Web Services announced they would invest $11 billion in Louisa County to construct two data center campuses to take advantage of a technology overlay district the Board of Supervisors adopted earlier that year. 

Now the company has submitted a joint application with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality for the second facility that will be known as the Northeast Creek Technology Campus. 

“The Campus would include 10 buildings, three substations, logistic and administrative buildings, stormwater structures, and associated infrastructures,” reads a public notice for the application published on November 4. 

This campus will be on 374 acres off of U.S. Route 33 and east of Desper Creek. The project as proposed would disturb waterways under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Army Corps. Here are the exact details for those interested:

“As proposed, the project will permanently impact 0.41 acre of palustrine forested (PFO) wetlands, 0.17 acre of palustrine scrub-shrub (PSS) wetlands, 0.26 acre of palustrine emergent (PEM) wetlands, 0.19 acre of palustrine open water (POW), 1,130 linear feet (0.21 acre) of perennial streams, 806 linear feet (0.10 acre) of intermittent streams, and 48 linear feet (0.01 acre) of ephemeral streams,” reads the project description as stated in the public notice. 

To mitigate the impacts, Amazon will purchase 1.68 wetland credits from the New Kent Environmental Bank as well as 2,489 stream credits from the Ashland Mill Mitigation Bank. 

The evaluation of the project involves public input and the contact information is in the public notice. 

A joint application for the first campus was filed last year. That one will be called the Lake Anna Tech Campus. 

Photo credit and caption: A schematic showing the layout for the proposed data center campus and its impacts to wetland. For a larger view, review the public notice. (Credit: Wetland Studies and Solutions Inc) 

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