Adapted from materials distributed by Environmental Accountability and Strategy Team (EAST) https://eastcoalition.com/.
We are not powerless in the fight against the data center under construction in Botetourt County. Let’s roll up our sleeves, pick up our pens, hit the computer keyboards: Request the Army Corps of Engineers hold a public hearing on the Google’s data center at Greenfield (Project Raspberry).
Last spring many citizens asked the Army Corps of Engineers to hold a public hearing on Project Raspberry yet still no decision to do so. New letters, YOUR letter, can help make it happen. BUT form letters will not work. Your letter must be in your own words. (The Corps is allowed to group copied letters together and count them as one letter.) A short letter is fine. And handwritten is fine!
1. Start with this!
[date]
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Norfolk District
Attn: Brittany Kopitsky
803 Front Street, Norfolk, VA 23510
brittany.d.kopitsky@usace.army.mil
Re: Public hearing on Project Raspberry, NAO-2025-01857
Dear Ms. Kopitsky,
2. Tell them who you are.
A few sentences is plenty. Give your name, where you live, about how far that is from Greenfield, and how long you have been here. Say what the streams, springs and wildlife around here mean to you. If you farm or look after land of your own, mention it.
If you missed the comment period last spring because nobody told you about it, say so. If you asked for a hearing last spring and never got an answer, say that too.
3. Ask for the hearing. Something like this but in your own words.
I am asking the Corps to hold a public hearing in Botetourt County before it decides. Important facts about this project were not public when comments closed on April 9, 2026, or have changed since. People here have things the Corps needs to hear.
4. Say what is new.
Listed below are THREE THINGS that have come to light since April 9, 2026. Put the facts in your own words. Tell the Corps that people in the Valley could speak to these at a hearing. You do not have to prove anything in a letter. A hearing is where people can explain in person.
5. Sign and send.
Thank her, sign it, and print your name and home address underneath. Email it from your personal email account to brittany.d.kopitsky@usace.army.mil or mail it via USPS to the address in step 1.
Keep a copy of your letter. And spread the word!
What’s Been Learned Since April 9
Protected Streams:
> According to a declaration the County recorded at the courthouse in 2002, certain streams at Greenfield are to be protected forever. The Corps is named in it.
> According to Google’s application, it knew of no protected streams on the site. According to the state’s permit file, after the state asked about it, Google sent the agency a map on April 15, six days after comments closed.
> That map is not the one at the courthouse. The courthouse map shows the protected strip running the whole length of the stream next to the first data center building. Google’s map shows it stopping short.
If you know that stream, walk the trails, have family in the cemeteries nearby, or remember the County making that promise, mention that. Tell the Corps community members want to talk about the history of the Greenfield site and the protected status of its streams.
The Rock and The Creek
> According to drilling reports done for Google and released in August, there is limestone and dolostone with karst under the site, and pyrite in some of the rock.
> According to the blasting notice sent to neighbors, blasting will go on for about a year. That rock will be used to fill more than a mile of headwater streams.
> According to the state DEQ, Tinker Creek already fails Virginia’s test for aquatic life.
None of this was in the notice last spring, so nobody could speak to it then. If you fish the creek, water stock from it, have a well or spring, do stream monitoring, or have watched the creek change over the years, tell the Corps what you know about and that your neighbors want to be heard on the soil and rock findings.
Make-up Work is 70 Miles Away!
> According to the Corps’ notice last spring, Google might do its own work to make up for the streams and wetlands it destroys. The notice did not say where or how.
> According to the state’s permit file, Google filed its plan in June, after comments closed. According to that plan, the make-up work is in Pittsylvania County, in the Piedmont, where the water runs to the Dan River.
Nobody has had a chance to tell the Corps why work done over there cannot replace what we lose at Greenfield. Tell the Corps it needs to hear why these streams cannot be replaced somewhere else.
Wood Haven Technology Park Data Center
Your interest in the data center issue may require these contact details.
Western Virginia Regional Industrial Facility Authority
Mailing Address:
WVRIFA
PO Box 2569
Roanoke, VA 24010
Email: info@wvrifa.org
Executive Director: John Hull, john@roanoke.org
List of all WVRIFA members as of June 2026
Salem City Council
Mailing Address:
City of Salem City Hall
P.O. Box 869
Salem, VA 24153
Physical Address:
114 N. Broad Street
Salem, VA 24153
Phone: 540-375-3017
Online Contact Form
Roanoke City Council
Mailing / Physical Address:
Office of the City Clerk
Noel C. Taylor Municipal Building
215 Church Avenue SW, Suite 456
Roanoke, VA 24011
Phone: 540-853-2541
Email: clerk@roanokeva.gov
Roanoke County Board of Supervisors
Mailing/Physical Address:
5204 Bernard Drive
Roanoke, VA 24018
Phone Number: 540-772-2005
Email: BOS@roanokecountyva.gov