Military history buffs are waging war against Virginia data centers

• It has the largest concentration of data centers in the world, with most housed in Loudoun County.
• But much of the large, open spaces of land ripe for this kind of development hold historical significance, such as battlefields.

Driving the news: A report presented to Virginia lawmakers this week outlining the data center boom's impact on the state found that data center projects don't pose more of a risk to historic sites than other types of large-scale development.

• But the report did say that enacting more pre-development studies could help lower the risk of such projects harming historically important sites.

Preservationists think the report minimizes data centers' threat to historic sites.

• American Battlefield Trust president David Duncan issued a statement saying that further steps must be taken to preserve these sites, adding that "there are currently few legal protections in place to stop this impact."

The big picture: There's a pushback against data centers happening across the country, spearheaded by the local community members and politicians who have to live with them.

• Concerns include: the amount of land and energy such centers gobble up, their environmental impacts, their noise and the fact that many people think they're downright ugly.

But data centers are also seen by many as local revenue generators necessary to continue fueling the AI revolution and the world's booming internet consumption.

State of play: There's a series of proposed or in-the-works data center projects in Virginia on or near battlefield sites, but two have recently made headlines:

Prince William County's Digital Gateway, which could create up to 37 data centers on around 2,000 acres of land and be one of the world's largest data center developments. It's also next door to Manassas National Battlefield Park.

• Feedback concerning the project has been fiery: Think 27-hour-long county board meetings, dissenters showing up in Civil War garb and even a letter of opposition from No. 1 history daddy Ken Burns.

Wilderness Crossing in Virginia's Orange County, a mixed-use development that could include a data center near the Wilderness Battlefield site — a possibility that landed the battlefield on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's most endangered historic places list this year.

Zoom in: A lawsuit the American Battlefield Trust and a group of residents filed against the Prince William County Board of Supervisors and Digital Gateway developers was rejected by a judge in October.

• The opponents have appealed the decision. And another lawsuit filed by a separate group of residents is still outstanding.

Meanwhile, the American Battlefield Trust, alongside other groups, filed a lawsuit against Orange County's board regarding the Wilderness Crossing project.

Stunning stat: A data center has been in some phase of construction each day for the last 14 years in Loudoun County.

What they're saying: "You can move a data center. You can't move something like a battlefield," Duncan tells Axios.

Yes, but: Many of the preservationists Axios spoke with emphasized that they aren't anti-development and know data centers are needed — but they want to ensure they don't threaten historic sites and that there's transparency and regulations regarding their creation.

• "We're not opposed to data centers generally," says Betsy Merritt, a National Trust for Historic Preservation lawyer. "We all need them. But it's a matter of location, location, location."

The other side: "This is Virginia, every inch of Virginia is historic for one reason or another. Those of us alive today have to continue to exist and live and build," Orange County Board of Supervisors Chair Mark Johnson told The Daily Progress in May. "I'm not sure how many thousands of acres are necessary to memorialize a battlefield."

• The industry group Data Center Coalition declined to provide comment to Axios.

What we're watching: How the suits in Prince William and Orange counties play out — and whether they can set a precedent regarding data center development in Virginia's historically significant areas.