A group of Northern Virginia residents protested Thursday against a plan to build a transmission line in a 6.5-mile stretch of Prince William County, as Dominion Energy hosted an event explaining why the project is needed.
At Patriot High School in Nokesville, Virginia, Dominion organized an hourslong open house for its proposed Nokesville-Bristow project. The plan calls for a 230-kilovolt transmission line that will connect the existing Nokesville Substation with a planned Bristow Switching Station.
Last week, the Prince William County Board of Supervisors effectively took two routes out of contention, saying it didn’t plan to offer Dominion easements or use of county property for the routes called “blue” and “light blue.”
The proposal led to the latest clash between the Virginia utility and residents and lawmakers.
“Everywhere I go, there are either data centers or more substations and these transmission towers,” Carylee Carrington, a longtime Prince William County resident, said. “This is where I want to have my kids grow up. I have a 14 and 11-year-old, and it’s just been shocking to see how things have changed.”
Transmission line critics held a news conference in the school’s parking lot. Some sat on tractors. Others held signs that read “Bury the Lines” and “Save Our Rural Land.”
An organization called The Coalition to Protect Prince William County planned the event, which featured state officials such as state Sens. Danica Roem and Jeremy McPike, among others.
Deshundra Jefferson, who chairs the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, told WTOP local officials’ hands are “tied to a certain extent, but that doesn’t mean we’re not going to fight against this.”
“Dominion can do better and they need to do better,” Jefferson said. “What they’re looking at is profitability, not the people, not the communities that they’re impacting.”
Dominion Energy said the Nokesville line is necessary to ensure community members have “dependable electric service as the Innovation Park area expands,” according to the project’s website.
At the company’s open house inside the school, residents lined up to read signs with project details and ask questions about the proposal.
Data centers are frequently mentioned as a reason for the need for the extra lines and Dominion spokeswoman Aisha Khan said they’re “a big factor in driving that demand.”
“But so is electrification. So is the growing population. So are your hospitals, your schools, your fire stations,” she said.
Demonstrators called for the line to be buried underground. Khan said that option has been studied but isn’t feasible. Other buried utilities are in the way, she said, and bedrock is a barrier.
“Trying to get through that bedrock,” Khan said. “It’s going to take so long, so many months to try to drill through that. And on top of that, it’s going to be costly.”
Dominion must submit a preferred line route to the State Corporation Commission for consideration before the project can move forward.
Khan did not have a cost estimate for the project or an estimated time frame for identifying a preferred route.
Walker Trenum, who has lived in Nokesville for 23 years, said many people are worried “about the whole data centers constantly pushing in, taking over Ashburn and they’re eventually going to work their way down here.”
“The important thing is trying to drag that out as long as possible to keep the fight alive until people can see the real harms behind it.”
Kat, another Nokesville resident, said the line is going to “cut apart people’s private properties and it’s going to destroy the beauty of our lifestyle.”
Khan said Thursday’s event was the second open house for the project, and comments can also be submitted online.
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