NBC News and ‘Today’ feature VCU’s Stephen Fong in report on data centers and public health

By Sian Wilkerson

This week, Virginia Commonwealth University professor and environmental researcher Stephen S. Fong spoke with NBC News correspondent Stephanie Gosk about the impact of data centers on the environment and community health.

In Northern Virginia's Loudoun County, about an hour west of the nation's capital, Discovery Elementary School is located within a half-mile of 11 data centers. With as many as 264 backup diesel generators helping to power the massive facilities, community members have expressed concern about the effects on the school's students and residents in the surrounding neighborhood.

Fong, Ph.D., a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering in VCU's College of Engineering and associate director of research and graduate studies in the School of Life Sciences and Sustainability, part of the College of Humanities and Sciences, has been studying air pollution and the environment for years.

According to Fong's calculations, just one generator running at full capacity emits more pollution than 100 18-wheelers. With the quantity and size of the diesel generators being installed for data centers, "they're producing enough air pollution that there are concerns about what kind of health impacts this would have on students," he told Gosk.

When asked if the state should be continuously monitoring the air quality near Discovery Elementary School, Fong said, "Personally, I think they should."

Fong added to VCU News that the number of backup generators and the frequency with which they're turned on is not publicly known, so "having some instruments that continuously measure air pollutants would give students and residents some real-time information on the air quality," he said.

Recently, Fong and an interdisciplinary team of VCU researchers were awarded a VCU Breakthroughs grant. Their project, titled "Understanding the Environmental and Community Impacts of Data Centers in Virginia through Modeling, Measurement and Participatory Research," will test air quality around data centers in the Richmond region.

Fong and Damian Pitt, Ph.D., an associate professor in the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs, are co-principal investigators on the project, which also includes Wilder School associate professor I-Shian (Ivan) Suen, Ph.D.; Beth Kreydatus, a professor in the Department of Focused Inquiry in the College of Humanities and Sciences; and Carly Muir, an assistant professor in the School of Life Sciences and Sustainability.

Watch Fong's NBC News and "Today" appearance on "Elementary school in middle of 11 data centers."