When it comes to data centers, there are tons of cases growing ever more serious around the country, uniting under a single banner: residents don't want them.
One homeowner in Louisa County, Virginia, is suing Amazon over disruptions from the construction of a data center campus being built across the street from his property. Austin Newsom, who runs a boat detailing and repair business near his home, filed a private suit in August 2025 seeking relief from what he says are round-the-clock impacts on his home and business, according to Virginia Mercury.
The site is Amazon's second data center in the county. It's a project that calls for ten buildings, three substations, stormwater structures, and related infrastructure, with construction slated to finish in 2031. Newsom said dozens of dump trucks travel Route 33 near his property most days, and that the road has been stained rusty red by displaced soil. He told Virginia Mercury that his neighbor across the street left, and that when he looked up who had bought the property, it was Amazon.
Newsom said the problems began when work started in March 2025. He dealt with loud noise, clouds of dust, and tap water that turned muddy brown, with the water issues coming and going for months as construction continued. He said his well had gone through four major droughts since the 1950s without trouble, and that in his 11 or 12 years there he never had an issue until the work across the street began.
Newsom alleged that construction vibrations are cracking his home's foundation, and that the project is devaluing his home, disrupting drainage, and affecting his mental health. He said late-night noise carries from the site and light pollution floods his children's bedroom, and that customers towing boats to his workshop have had near accidents with the trucks. Amazon has deployed street sweepers and sprayed water to control dust, though Newsom said the effort washes mud into his driveway and isn't enough.
The case is moving forward in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Charlottesville, with a preliminary hearing set for August 19. Amazon asked the court to dismiss the nuisance claim, arguing in a filing that the brown water, noise, diminished air quality, and light pollution were each insubstantial and that the entire claim should be thrown out. U.S. District Judge Jasmine H. Yoon allowed the nuisance claim to proceed.
Yoon did dismiss one part of the case. She rejected Newsom's separate claim for injunctive relief, ruling that the remedy could still be pursued as part of the nuisance claim rather than as a standalone claim. Newsom has taken his complaints to county leaders and Amazon repeatedly, and said he was met with promises to look into the issues that still haven't been taken care of.
Newsom's dispute is just one small part of a larger data center issue and the resistance they've drawn in just this county alone. Amazon is already building another data center near the Lake Anna Power Station in Louisa County, and it withdrew a proposed third project in July 2025 after strong public backlash.
A separate project compounds Newsom's situation. Preliminary route options for the Valley Link transmission line, a 115-mile, 765-kilovolt line that would run from Lynchburg to Culpeper County to feed data centers in Northern Virginia, could cross his property and force him to tear down the workshop that houses his business. Newsom, who has begun building his family a new home and put his current one up for sale without success, said he expects to be stuck with the property and two mortgages.
His case has drawn attention from individuals like environmental advocate Erin Brockovich. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be an end in sight for the issue just yet.