Where you live
How close are you to PAX-1?
See how far your home is from PAX-1, the 16-building data center campus near Carlisle, and what to expect there.
We look up addresses with the U.S. Census Bureau and with Cumberland County's address points, hosted by Penn State. We don't save addresses or locations. We only count lookups by rough distance from the site and by area, such as Middlesex Township.
The noise study
The developer only modeled noise at homes up to 3,800 feet from its buildings.#
922 of the 1,760 homes within 2 miles of those buildings sit farther out.
See where it modeled homesCheck our math on the homes
What to expect
What PAX-1 will most likely mean for the homes around it, from the developer's plans, Virginia's legislative auditors and people who live near other data centers.
A constant low hum
Virginia's auditors describe it as a constant drone, like a home air conditioner at industrial scale, and some residents there report lost sleep. Middlesex's limit, 70 dBA at the property line, uses a scale that doesn't fully count a hum like this, and it doesn't apply during a power outage.
Virginia on the constant humVirginia on noise limitsView the noise limit
How much noise pollution, in dBCHomes near the site, beside places with and without a data center Homes near the site
The developer's April model, at 14 of the 16 homes it modeled
58 to 64 dBCCompared with
Homes near Amazon's data centersAbout the same
Measured at night, with some traffic, in Prince William County, Virginia
60 to 63 dBCNear other data centers thereMore noise
Measured at night
66 to 73 dBCA quiet nightLess noise
No data center, in rural Nokesville, Virginia
48 dBC
dBC. Bars start at 40.
dBC counts the hum fully; dBA, the scale noise limits use, turns it down. In a power outage, the developer's study gives these homes 63 to 70. It gives the other two 48 and 42, without saying why. The developer's study says many agencies and practitioners use 65 to 70 dBC to avoid low-frequency problems, without naming any. View the study on dBC
The developer's levels, home by homeWhere the measurements come from
Great Oak, Virginia
“It's beyond frustrating that I can't protect my children.”
Carlos Yanes, 2025
About 600 feet from Amazon's data centers.
Residents called the police over the noise in 2022. In 2025, after Amazon's fixes, the Prince William Times found the neighborhood still “plagued by a low-frequency roar.”
Amazon: 83 acres, four data centers
PAX-1 could hold 8 sites this size
Prince William Times on Great Oak in 2025Prince William Times on Amazon's 2023 fixThe county's parcel record
Six years of construction
Virginia's auditors found that building a campus this size means years of loud work and heavy truck traffic. PAX-1 is scheduled to take until spring 2032, and the Township says work is allowed Monday through Saturday, generally from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Blasting is part of the work, and inspecting homes beforehand isn't legally required, though the Township's minutes say contractors are offering it.
Virginia on constructionRead it in the June 3 minutesRead it in the April 24 minutes
The developer's construction schedule TodaySite work for all threeMarch to November 2026
Campus 1June 2026 to December 2028
Campus 2March 2028 to May 2030
Campus 3August 2029 to spring 2032
2026202720282029203020312032View the site work and Campus 1View Campus 2 and 3Watch how the campuses are numbered
Point Pleasant, West Virginia
“Our house just shakes and vibrates all day. You can hear toilet seat just rattling on the toilet. You'll see the trash can go across the floor.”
Joshua Jeffers, May 2026
Beside Nscale's construction, in the neighborhood he has lived in for 20 years.
The same story reports that a month's worth of rain in one weekend overwhelmed the site's erosion controls and flooded homes.
Nscale: 2,200 acres
About 3 times the size of PAX-1
WCHS on the shaking housesWatch WCHS's reportWCHS on Point Pleasant
Buildings and lights in view
The zoning lets the buildings stand up to 75 feet tall, about three times a two-story house. Many data center sites run bright security lighting, and PAX-1's plans keep its lights at the same levels after hours, though the developer's engineer told the Supervisors most would be off or dimmed.
Virginia on site lightingView the plans' lighting noteWatch “dimmed to that lower standard”Check our math on how the buildings would look
Abilene, Texas
“You don't need to turn the lights on to walk around the house at night because there's so many lights.”
Rusty Towell, September 2026
200 feet from the data center, which has grown to his property line.
He bought land zoned for homes before the land to his north was rezoned. The campus has its own gas power plant.
OpenAI's Stargate: 777.6 acres, eight buildings
About the size of PAX-1
KXAN on AbileneTaylor County's appraisal recordCrusoe's announcement
Diesel generators
The developer's noise studies list at least 582 diesel generators, more than ten times the average Virginia site's 54, and its engineer said testing them would be “a daily activity.”
View the equipment tableVirginia's average siteWatch “a daily activity”
Aurora, Illinois
“Cyrus had to run their generators three days in a row, 24 hours. It was nonstop noise.”
Laura Evans, March 2026
About a thousand feet from CyrusOne's campus to the backyard.
CyrusOne's own notices confirm a transformer failure in April 2025 and about a dozen announced generator runs since, besides the monthly tests.
CyrusOne: 16 acres, three data centers
PAX-1 could hold 43 sites this size
FOX 32 on AuroraCyrusOne's generator noticesWatch ABC News's reportCyrusOne on its Aurora campus
Water
Many homes near the site are on the Township authority's public water. PAX-1 is allocated 400,000 gallons a day from it. Its customers in Middlesex use 560,000 on an average day, not counting what it sends on to North Middleton Township, and the authority's memo says a new well “or other sources of supply will be necessary.”
View the allocationThe authority's current useView the authority's memo
Your electric bill
The regional grid's independent monitor found that existing and forecast data centers added $29.4 billion to its capacity costs, the price of keeping enough power plants ready, from June 2025 through May 2029, and PPL says higher capacity prices have added about $20 a month to its average home's bill.
Aurora, Illinois
“Our electric bills this past year are probably 50% higher than they've been years past.”
Bryan Castro, February 2026
Behind CyrusOne's campus.
Nothing in the story ties his bill to the campus, and CyrusOne says it pays for all the electricity it uses, at rates set under Illinois' rules.
CyrusOne: 16 acres, three data centers
PAX-1 could hold 43 sites this size
People living beside data centers across the country, most of them smaller than PAX-1, describe what it's like.
What the developer's studies leave out
The equipment it will install. The Township's own consultant asked for the makes and models, to check the noise model. The developer said it couldn't disclose them without disclosing the end user.
Its louder June plans. The June update lists more and louder equipment, raises each large generator from 65 to 75 dBA, and gives no level at any home.
View its June equipment tableView the June generator levelView its June results
The air. We found no air model for PAX-1's generators in the public record. The developer has agreed to give the Township copies of its state air permit filings once it makes them.
What you can do
Add your name#
Then send this page to a neighbor.
The next public meeting is the Board of Supervisors, Workshop Meeting, Friday, October 30 at 7:30 a.m. See the calendar
Where residents won
Speaking up has worked elsewhere.#
In Pennsylvania
Hampden Township, Cumberland County
Dozens of residents spoke for more than two hours against letting data centers into an office park beside their homes, and in September 2025 the commissioners unanimously turned it down. Their July 2026 rules allow data centers only in the industrial district, after a public hearing.
abc27 on the hearingRead the September voteRead the rules they adopted
Montour County
More than 3,000 signatures on petitions opposed rezoning about 870 acres of farmland for Talen Energy. In February 2026 the commissioners voted 3-0 to deny it, and the county's rules now keep data centers 1,000 feet from the property lines of homes, schools and parks.
Inside Climate News on MontourRead the voteRead the ordinance
Hazle Township, Luzerne County
A crowd of about 100 turned out, and in November 2025 the supervisors voted unanimously to deny a 15-building data center campus. A county judge denied the developer's appeal, and the township declared a 180-day pause while it writes data center rules. Doreen Cherenyock, across from the site, had videos of the early work “going on 24 hours a day, cutting, blasting.”
FOX56 on the voteTimes Leader on the ruling and the pauseFOX56 on the pauseWVIA on the site work
Salem Township, Luzerne County
After residents complained about a bitcoin mine's fans through the night, the township adopted a noise ordinance in June 2024. It covers data centers, limits sound at homes to 50 decibels overnight, and allows generator tests only from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
In other states
Port Washington, Wisconsin
Residents pushed the city to stop round-the-clock construction at a data center site. Its plan commission set an end date, limited deliveries to 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., and required the site's lights to drop to security levels after 8:30 p.m.
Lowell, Massachusetts
A judge granted residents' request to pause four new diesel generators at a data center while their lawsuit over its air permits goes forward.
Henry County, Virginia
After 37 residents spoke against data centers at a July hearing, the supervisors sent the rules back. In August they adopted stricter ones, including generator tests only on weekdays from 9 to 5 and a noise test every year.
Fund the fight
Lawyers stop bulldozers.
The fight over PAX-1 happens in court, and it runs on briefs, expert witnesses, and filing fees.