Botetourt County residents came together this weekend to discuss the proposed Google data center planned for the area. The meeting was hosted by the Southwest Virginia Data Center Transparency Group and Botetourt Conservatives and Independent Thinkers, who joined forces to address community concerns.

Residents of Botetourt County packed a meeting to express fears about the proposed data center's potential environmental impact, particularly on Carvin's Cove, the local water supply.

Virginia’s data center industry is experiencing rapid growth, and leaders from across the commonwealth gathered in Lynchburg to chart its future at the Emerging Industry Summit on Data Center Development.

Botetourt County officials announced Tuesday that Google had purchased land zoned for industrial use and data center in the Botetourt Center at Greenfield.

The new data center is expected to create hundreds of jobs and produce millions of dollars in tax revenue.

Statisticians and demographers are sounding the alarm about threats to official data gathering in the U.S. They warn that funding for the federal statistical agencies is inadequate and measures in a House appropriations bill could undermine what Americans know about themselves.