Your browser doesn't support audio playback.
Updated Friday, Aug. 14 at 11:08 a.m.
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Division of Air Quality has verified ownership of the property in Tucker County proposed for data center development by Fundamental Data LLC.
The firm provided documentation of its legal site control to the DEP earlier this week.
In a letter signed by Laura Crowder, director of the Division of Air Quality, and shared to media by Andrea Khoury of Khoury Public Relations and Media Group, the DEP confirmed that Fundamental’s purchase and sale agreement “establishes a direct contractual path for your acquisition of a portion of the subject property.”
“Our staff have performed a detailed GIS and cartographical comparison of the property boundaries and coordinates,” the letter states. “The physical boundary of the 291-acre tract outlined in Exhibit A of your PSA corresponds precisely with the Facility Location Map and Plot Plans submitted under Attachment B and Attachment E of your permit application.”
The DEP separately confirmed the veracity of the letter to WVPB via email.
Original Story:
Fundamental Data submitted Wednesday a purchase and sale agreement to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Division of Air Quality showing their 2024 acquisition of approximately 290 acres in Tucker County.
Last year the company announced its intention to construct a natural gas-fired microgrid to power a data center. Citizen groups have appealed to the courts and the Air Quality Board for more information about the microgrid’s capacity, citing that information important to public safety like emissions data and design details are blacked out on the company’s permit application.
The DEP requested the document at the end of July after receiving correspondence questioning Fundamental’s ownership and control of their proposed building site between the towns of Thomas and Davis.
Section 8 of the Air Quality permit application asks whether the applicant owns, leases, has an option to purchase, or otherwise controls the proposed site. Fundamental Data answered yes and identified the executed July 19, 2024 agreement as the basis for that answer.
The DEP’s July 31 letter also said a review of Tucker County records showed the parcels in question still belonged to Western Pocahontas Properties. They also pointed to Fundamental’s own categorization of the project as “conceptual” to the West Virginia Office of Energy in June.
The 18-page purchase and sale agreement identifies Western Pocahontas Properties Limited Partnership as the seller and Fundamental Data LLC as the purchaser. But like Fundamental’s air quality permit application, the rest of the purchase and sale agreement is almost completely blacked out and marked “Redacted Copy – Claim of Confidentiality.”
In a press release, Fundamental said “The redactions protect financial terms and other negotiated commercial provisions between the two private parties. They do not conceal information regarding the facility’s permitted environmental obligations, emissions limits, monitoring requirements, testing requirements or reporting obligations.”
Casey Chapman of Fundamental Data LLC certified the permit application as truthful, accurate and complete.
“I signed that application and certified it as truthful, accurate and complete,” Chapman said. “I take that responsibility seriously, and I would not have signed it if it were not accurate. When the division asked about the agreement referenced in our application, we provided a redacted copy of the executed agreement.”
Chapman also said, “Private is not the same thing as secret.”
“The economics and negotiated terms of a private land transaction have nothing to do with what comes out of a stack,” he said. “The public has every right to know what this facility is permitted to emit and what environmental standards it must meet. Those requirements are public.”
Editor’s Note: The original version of this story stated Fundamental Data LLC submitted its documentation Tuesday, Aug. 11. The documents were submitted Wednesday, Aug. 12 and the story has been updated to reflect the correct information.