Virginia homeowner says Amazon's data centre turned his quiet life into 'chaos'; now he's suing over noise, flooding and damage

Austin Newsom's quiet life in Louisa County, Virginia, changed after Amazon began building a huge data centre next to his property. Newsom lives with his wife in a three-bedroom house on Jefferson Highway. His boat repair and detailing business, Central VA Marine, also operates from the property. He says the construction has brought constant noise, flashing lights, dust, heavy machinery and traffic. He also says his water began turning brown, flooding appeared near his property and vibrations caused cracks in his home. Newsom filed a lawsuit against Amazon in August 2025. The case is now moving forward after a federal judge rejected Amazon's attempt to dismiss the main private-nuisance claim in July 2026.Amazon's Virginia project is being built beside his homeAmazon began construction of its Northeast Creek Technology Campus in March 2025. The development is planned across about 374 acres and includes 10 data-centre buildings, three substations, logistics and administrative buildings, stormwater facilities and other infrastructure. One Amazon property listed in the lawsuit at 2694 Jefferson Highway sits directly beside Newsom's home at 2623 Jefferson Highway. Construction is expected to continue until around 2031. The scale of the project has transformed the area around Newsom's property, which he says was once a quiet rural setting. He had also spent more than $80,000 renovating his house and planned to sell it after building another home nearby.Noise, lights, flooding and brown water are among his complaintsNewsom says the construction has brought extraordinarily loud noise to his property, including during hours restricted by Louisa County's noise rules. He also says flashing blue lights from the Amazon site shine almost continuously and are visible from his home at night. Another major complaint concerns his water supply. According to the lawsuit, his water began intermittently turning brown soon after construction started. Newsom says he had never experienced the problem before and became reluctant to drink the water. The lawsuit also alleges that excavation changed natural drainage patterns and contributed to flooding near his property. Dust and debris from construction have added to the disruption, while Newsom says vibrations from heavy machinery have caused cracks in his house.The disruption is affecting his boat repair business and propertyNewsom's home is also the base for Central VA Marine, the boat repair and detailing business he co-owns. The lawsuit says construction has created heavy traffic, road damage, dust and safety problems around the business. Newsom says some customers have struggled to access the property with boats and that some have said they will not return until the construction ends. He also says the project has made it harder to sell his home. Realtor.com reported that a local real-estate agent described the property as difficult to market because the construction is so visible. Newsom had planned to sell the house after completing another home nearby, but says the construction has undermined those plans and reduced the property's appeal.Federal judge allows the nuisance lawsuit to continueNewsom and Central VA Marine filed their lawsuit in Louisa County Circuit Court on August 11, 2025. Amazon moved the case to federal court and later asked for the claims to be dismissed. On July 10, 2026, US District Judge Jasmine H. Yoon allowed the main private-nuisance claim to proceed. The judge considered the combined allegations of noise, dust, debris, flashing lights, vibrations, structural cracking, flooding and water problems and found that they were sufficient to plead a potentially substantial and unreasonable interference with the property. The judge dismissed a separate claim seeking temporary injunctive relief because an injunction is a remedy rather than an independent cause of action. The ruling did not end Newsom's ability to seek injunctive relief as part of the surviving nuisance case.His fight reflects a bigger conflict over data-centre growthNewsom's dispute comes as Virginia sees rapid growth in data-centre construction driven by cloud computing and artificial intelligence. Amazon is developing another data-centre campus in Louisa County, while a third proposed project was withdrawn in July 2025 following opposition from local residents. Newsom has also raised concerns about a proposed transmission project that would serve the region's growing electricity demand from data centres. He told Realtor.com that the proposed power line could affect his property as well.Catch the latest World News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.