Discovery Elementary School in Ashburn, Virginia sits near 11 data centers and 264 diesel generators, a cluster of industrial infrastructure. Coco Lyons picks up her 6-year-old daughter Zuri from Discovery Elementary.
The scale of the buildout around the school is detailed in reporting by NBC News, which found that diesel generators like the ones ringing Discovery Elementary emit air pollutants. The generators are backup power sources, built to kick in during outages or periods of grid stress, but their sheer number in this stretch of Loudoun County has become its own source of community anxiety.
A Region Thick With Generators
Loudoun County is not an outlier within Virginia — it's the epicenter. The state has about 9,000 diesel generators total, and roughly 4,700 of them, more than half, are concentrated in Loudoun County alone, according to VPM. Those generators can release particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and ozone precursors, the outlet reported; these pollutants are associated with health effects.
The density of data centers in this specific pocket of Loudoun County is also striking. As of March 1, the county had approximately 233 data centers built or under construction, per WTOP. A county supervisor told NBC4 Washington that more than 250 data centers operate within just a 30-square-mile area, and that those facilities test their generators every single month — meaning the machinery isn't just sitting idle as a contingency plan.
State Regulators Start Testing the Air
Virginia's Department of Environmental Quality has responded by launching an air-monitoring project in the data-center corridor, placing sensors at seven locations to gather real data rather than relying on assumptions, according to NBC4 Washington. Initial results from that monitoring have reported levels of particulate matter, nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide, the station reported — though the project does not provide school-specific results or a health assessment for Discovery Elementary itself. The DEQ describes the effort as a special air-monitoring project funded through an EPA grant, launched in response to the rapid growth of data centers in Northern Virginia and community concerns about emissions from backup generators and natural-gas-fired turbines, per the agency's own description.
Loudoun County's government page on the issue notes that DEQ began mandating Tier 4-equivalent emissions standards for new or modified generators at data-center sites starting July 1, a regulatory tightening aimed at reducing pollution from future installations, though it does not address generators already in place before that date.
Money, Power Demand and a Statewide Pattern
The generators keep multiplying because the data centers keep multiplying. Business Insider reported that 176 new data centers were permitted across the state in 2025. That expansion sits in tension with the mounting scrutiny over emissions and noise in neighborhoods like the one surrounding Discovery Elementary.
This past July, diesel backup generators at a Digital Realty data center in Ashburn switched on as temperatures spiked during a heat wave, running as part of a PJM Interconnection demand-response program, Business Insider reported. It was a reminder that backup generators can be switched on when the grid is strained.
Health Researchers Flag Broader Risks
Beyond Loudoun County, researchers have been tallying the cumulative health toll of the data-center boom. Data-center air pollution nationally could contribute to roughly 600,000 asthma symptom cases and 1,300 premature deaths by 2028, according to U.S. News, which also reported that chronic exposure to the noise generated by these facilities has been associated with sleep disturbance, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and stress-related health outcomes. The outlet further noted that noise pollution has been linked to poor cognition, decreased learning and lower reading comprehension in children — a finding with obvious resonance for a school like Discovery Elementary sitting in the middle of the corridor.
Not every data-center expansion in the region has gone forward unchallenged. A three-judge panel halted a proposed 2,100-acre data-center project in Prince William County near Manassas National Battlefield Park, U.S. News reported, and the same outlet cited Data Center Watch's finding that 20 data-center projects valued at an estimated $98 billion were blocked or delayed nationally over a recent three-month stretch. Virginia also has more than 100 planned transmission-line upgrades intended to deliver additional power to data centers, according to VPM, underscoring how much grid infrastructure is still being built to keep pace with demand.
Virginia's Growth Mirrors a National Boom
The pattern unfolding around Discovery Elementary is playing out elsewhere too, at a larger scale. The U.S. has more than 4,000 data centers overall, and their energy demand is expected to more than double by 2030, per U.S. News. Texas, meanwhile, has roughly 300 data centers already operating and 200 more in development, and could surpass Virginia as the nation's leading data-center market by the end of the decade, according to WIRED.
The DEQ's air sensors continue collecting data near Loudoun County's data centers.
