How to act
Resources & FAQ
This site records what is happening. It does not make anything happen. If you want action taken, the county is who you need — here is how to reach them.
Filing with Loudoun County
Noise you can hear indoors, happening right now
If the noise is audible inside your home with the doors and windows closed, the Sheriff's Office handles it — and it needs to be reported while it is actually happening so it can be witnessed.
Sheriff's Office non-emergency line
703-777-1021
Recurring noise, or any zoning issue
Noise audible at your property line, hours of operation, lighting, screening, setbacks, construction activity — these are zoning matters. Loudoun enforces the zoning ordinance by complaint, which means nothing is investigated unless somebody files.
Zoning Enforcement: 703-777-0246
1 Harrison Street SE, 3rd Floor, PO Box 7000, Leesburg, VA 20177
Anything else — potholes, runoff, dust, traffic
Loudoun Express Request (LEx) is the county's general-purpose channel. It gives you a tracking number, which is worth keeping.
Your supervisor and the Board
Each of Loudoun's eight districts elects a supervisor. Sustained public comment at Board meetings is what has moved data center policy so far — Phase 1 of the county's zoning changes made data centers a special-exception use in areas where they had been allowed by right.
Useful references
- Loudoun County noise ordinance What the limits actually are
- Data center standards & locations County policy, and what's changing
- County's official data center map Existing & proposed, with parcels
- Loudoun County GeoHub The open GIS data this site uses
- Zoning enforcement How complaints are handled
- Virginia DEQ Air permits, including generators
Making a report that carries weight
Whether you're filing with the county or adding to this map, the same things make a report useful.
Write down the specifics
Date, time, how long it lasted, wind direction, what you were doing when you noticed. A log kept over weeks is far more persuasive than one vivid description, because it shows a pattern.
Describe, don't characterise
"A low hum I can hear in the back bedroom with the window shut, most nights after 11pm" does more work than "unbearable noise". Specific, checkable detail is what gets taken seriously.
Be honest about what you don't know
If you don't know which facility it is, say so. If your decibel reading came from a phone app, say that too — it is still worth recording, and being upfront about its limits protects the credibility of everything else you say.
Talk to your neighbours
Several independent reports from one street are much harder to dismiss than one. If people nearby are experiencing the same thing, ask them to file too.
Questions
Will my name or address appear anywhere?
No. Your name, email, phone and street address are never published, never shown to other visitors, and are not included in the data export. Only your district, ZIP code, the categories you pick, your impact rating, your description and any photos are made public.
Your map pin is also deliberately placed 100–200 m away from the location you give, so nobody can work backwards from the map to a house. See the privacy policy for the full detail.
Do I have to give my contact details?
No — every field in that section is optional and you can submit a complete report without any of them. They exist only so a moderator can come back to you with a question before publishing. If you leave them blank and your report needs clarification, it may be rejected rather than published, simply because there is no way to ask.
Why doesn't my report show up straight away?
Every report is read by a person before it is published. That is what keeps this map worth looking at — without it, an open submission form on a public site fills with spam and abuse within days. Expect a day or two.
What gets a report rejected?
Reports are not published if they:
- name or identify a private individual;
- make an allegation of illegality or wrongdoing against a named company;
- are second-hand — describe what you have experienced, not what you heard;
- are outside Loudoun County;
- are abusive, or are obviously automated or duplicated.
Disagreeing with data center development is not grounds for rejection. Describing a real experience in strong terms is not either.
Is this Erin Brockovich's project?
No. This site is independent and unaffiliated. It is modelled on the approach taken by brockovichdatacenter.com, which collects data center reports nationally, but it is not run by, endorsed by or connected to that project or to Erin Brockovich. This one covers Loudoun County only, and it uses Loudoun County's own GIS data for the facility layer.
Is this run by Loudoun County?
No. It is an independent community project. The facility data comes from the county's public GIS services, but the county does not operate this site, review it, or monitor what is submitted to it. Filing here does not file anything with the county — see the section above.
Can I get my report removed?
Yes, at any time and without giving a reason. Contact us with the reference number shown when you submitted, or with the email address you used. See your rights.
Does a report here mean a company did something wrong?
No, and the site is careful not to imply it. Reports are unverified first-hand accounts of what residents are experiencing. They are not investigated, not corroborated, and not findings of fact. Ownership shown on facility pins comes straight from public county land records and is frequently a holding company rather than the business operating the site.
I'm a journalist or researcher — can I use this data?
Yes. There is a CSV export on the statistics page covering every published report. Please describe it accurately: it is a self-selected sample of resident-submitted accounts, not a survey, and it should not be treated as representative of the county. Get in touch via the About page if you need something the export doesn't cover.