Filmmaker Ken Burns warns of 'devastating impact' of data centers near Manassas battlefield

Award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns has penned a letter to Prince William Board of County Supervisors’ Chair Ann Wheeler (D) warning of the 'devastating impacts' a massive data center campus would pose to the Manassas National Battlefield Park, which he called “hallowed ground.” 

The proposed “PW Digital Gateway” would replan 2,133 acres of agricultural land bordering the battlefield and nearby Conway Robinson Memorial State Forest to allow for new data centers, the huge, box-shaped buildings that house computer systems critical for running the internet. 

Burns is the director of numerous documentaries films and series, including the groundbreaking 1990 television miniseries “The Civil War” and the 2009 miniseries, “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.”  

“As a student and chronicler of American history for more than 40 years, I can attest to how fragile our precious heritage is and how susceptible it can be to the ravages of ‘progress.’ I learned while making my documentary series The Civil War in the late 1980s—and again when I made my 2009 series on the history of the national parks—how crucial the preservation of our historic landscapes is,” Burns wrote in a Jan. 5 letter to Wheeler.  

“I fear the devastating impact the development of up to 2,133 acres of data centers will have on this hallowed ground,” he added. “I implore you to seek more appropriate options for this planned development.”  

Under the PW Digital Gateway proposal, data centers would be allowed on about 570 acres of land directly adjacent to Manassas National Battlefield Park that has been recognized as significant to the Second Battle of Manassas but is not within the boundaries of the park.  

Manassas National Battlefield Park’s former superintendent Brandon Bies, who served at the post until December, called the proposal “the single greatest threat to Manassas National Battlefield Park in three decades.”  

Democratic members of the board of county supervisors, including Wheeler, approved a resolution directing county planners to study the PW Digital Gateway proposal in July. It will likely head to the Prince William County Planning Commission and the board of county supervisors for a vote sometime in 2022. 

Wheeler did not immediately return a request for comment on Friday afternoon.  

The plan has sparked bipartisan opposition in western Prince William County, where both Republican supervisors and Democratic state lawmakers who represent voters in the area have publicly voiced their objectionsto the plan.  

Del. Danica Roem, D-13th, and Del. Dan Helmer, D-40th, who represent parts of the Gainesville area, have both warned of the plan’s potential impacts to the national park and to nearby Conway Robinson Memorial State Forest.  

A coalition of national, regional and local conservation and environmental groups are organizing against the proposal, including the Prince William Conservation Alliance, The Coalition to Protect Prince William County, the Piedmont Environmental Council, as well as the American Battlefield Trust and the National Parks Conservation Association, two national associations.  

Prince William County’s planning office is hosting a community meeting to hear feedback on the PW Digital Gateway on Thursday, Jan. 27 at the Beacon Hall Conference Center at George Mason University’s Science and Technology campus in Manassas.  

Reach Daniel Berti at dberti@fauquier.com