<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0IgU0M_1GwFw71D00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0IgU0M_1GwFw71D00" width="1280" height="720" ><figcaption>Billy Shields / VPM News The Project Peanut site is photographed on Monday, Sept. 21, 2026, in Chesterfield County, Virginia.</figcaption></figure>Google’s Project Peanut has received a second notice of violation from state environmental regulators in the span of a month. Peanut, one of the company’s three planned data center campuses in Chesterfield County, is currently under construction and slated to go online in late 2027. An Oct. 30, 2026 notice of violation letter from the state Department of Environmental Quality to project leaders details violations of the facility’s Virginia Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit. The cited violations involve on-site stormwater management issues — the previous notice, sent Sept. 29, covered impacts to water bodies, such as nearby streams, not included in Peanut’s permits. Photographs included in documentation posted to DEQ’s website show sediment-filled water gathering at stormwater drains and a lack of management practices, such as vegetation or silt fencing, at locations around the construction site.The document serves as a request for Peanut to work with DEQ to resolve the violations. DEQ expects a formal response to the notice by Friday — next steps could include the developer entering into a consent agreement with the agency. That would include necessary rehabilitations and improvements to bring the construction site back into compliance with its permits and state law.A half-dozen documents put on the DEQ website Oct. 30 outline the issues the regulator perceived upon inspection during the previous two months. Based on that documentation, DEQ “has reason to believe” that Peanut may be in violation of the Virginia Erosion and Stormwater Management Act and regulations.Among the citations are missing stabilization controls to prevent sediment runoff. In a statement to VPM News following coverage of the September notice — which was related to actual unpermitted sediment pollution rather than missing runoff controls — Google said “significant rainfall at the site overwhelmed existing stormwater controls and resulted in sediment runoff.”But according to documents posted on DEQ’s website, required stormwater controls have in some cases not been installed — or were installed out of order in relation to other construction work.In an incident cited in an Aug. 13 site inspection report, upland disturbances began before proper runoff controls were completed downhill. In other words, Peanut had a responsibility under state law to complete those sediment controls before starting construction work that would increase sediment runoff during a storm — DEQ believes that work was done out of order.In other cases, stormwater basins designed to carry runoff offsite were not properly protected by silt fencing or permanent vegetative stabilization, resulting in them becoming inundated with sediment.Sediment pollution can have a range of impacts on the surrounding environment. Silty, turbid water can kill off aquatic plant and animal life and destroy habitat. And it can contribute to flooding, as normally available water bodies instead become filled with solid matter. On Oct. 27, the county hosted a data center forum, with a panel including representatives of Chesterfield County, Google, Dominion Energy and Chirisa, another data center developer operating in Chesterfield.In that meeting, Deputy County Administrator Jesse Smith said construction sites are like “living beings” that require both good planning and responsiveness to on-the-ground issues as they arise.“It’s challenging when you get four to six inches of rain, and overnight, there’s just a lot of wash that happens,” Smith said. “You end up learning lessons the next day on, sort of, what can you do better.”Clay Allsop, who works in public affairs at Google, addressed the September notice of violation in his remarks at the October forum.“We understand that trust is earned, and that is something that we will continue to try and earn with the community,” Allsop said. “Regarding the recent violations, we’ve worked with DEQ to mitigate the impacts, to make corrective actions, to ensure that those do not happen again.”Representatives for Google did not respond to requests for comment on this story.</div></body>

Block Source: vpm.org

Misinformation

Clickbait

Old or repetitive news

Explicit content

Location not relevant

Google’s Project Peanut has received a second notice of violation from state environmental regulators in the span of a month. Peanut, one of the company’s three planned data center campuses in Chesterfield County, is currently under construction and slated to go online in late 2027. An Oct. 30,...

Project Peanut hit with second environmental violation notice

NewsBreak

Google’s Project Peanut has received a second notice of violation from state environmental regulators in the span of a month. Peanut, one of the company’s 

Project Peanut hit with second environmental violation notice

Comments