10/08/2026
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A data center ran backup generators for nearly 24 hours – and the fumes were so bad they hurt.
Greg Pirio, a resident of Sterling, Virginia, says noise and fumes from a nearby Vantage Data Centers facility forced him to stay with his daughter after its backup generators ran for nearly 24 hours.
“I had to go to my daughter’s house because it was hurting my lungs,” he told WUSA9.
Vantage confirmed that a power failure prompted the extended generator use. The incident occurred July 16–17, while Canadian wildfire smoke was already affecting the region’s air quality.
Pirio said he recorded noise reaching 60 decibels at his property line. The report cites a Loudoun County nighttime limit of 55 decibels, although his measurement alone does not establish an official noise violation.
When he complained to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, the agency’s director said current regulations did not give DEQ authority to stop the generators’ emergency operation following the loss of the facility’s primary power source.
That response was specific to the emergency circumstances. It did not mean the facility was exempt from every environmental or noise requirement.
For Pirio, however, it raised a larger question: what protection do nearby residents have when emergency equipment disrupts their homes?
Sterling District Supervisor Koran Saines said the Vantage VA2 site had generated complaints about both its regular gas turbines and its backup diesel generators. At the time of the report, he planned to ask county staff to explore ways to regulate backup generators.
Pirio also said he intended to pursue a noise complaint through the county’s magistrate office.
The report does not establish which pollutants reached his home or medically confirm what caused his symptoms. It does document a resident’s account of leaving his house – and a state regulator’s explanation that it could not halt the emergency operation under existing rules.
Learn more:
"Data center noise, fumes create flood of complaints in Loudoun County." WJLA
