sugarloafcitizens.org

The Fiber Optic “QLoop” Project in
Montgomery and Frederick Counties

A large-scale data center project is underway in Montgomery and Frederick Counties. It involves: (a) a data center “campus” located on 2,100 acres of existing industrial land on the outskirts of Frederick, and (b) 43 miles of underground fiber optic cables crossing beneath the Potomac River in two locations and beneath the Monocacy River in one location. The Monocacy River location is at the border of Dickerson and Frederick County in an area off Mouth of Monocacy Road.

The underground and under-river cables (called the QLoop) will connect the new Frederick data center with several existing data centers in Virginia (collectively called the “Ashburn Internet ecosystem”). The companies behind the project are Quantum Loophole, based in Austin, TX, and Aligned Data Centers, based in Plano, TX. You can read all about them and the project at www.quantumloophole.com and https://www.aligneddc.com

Four multi-story data center buildings are envisioned initially for the Frederick site. Additional buildings at this site may be added in the future. Preparation at the site began in July 2022, as did the initial QLoop Potomac River crossing. Frederick county officials approved the project, and the companies obtained the appropriate permits for both Potomac crossings. It’s as yet unclear whether the companies had permits for the Monocacy River crossing. A map of the project can be found here: https://quantumloophole.com/qloop/. Of note, the Frederick County Planning Commission has recommended approval of a nearby landowner’s request to rezone his property from agriculture to “general industrial” because of a change in neighborhood.

SCA is interested in and closely monitoring this project for four reasons:

Local residents off Mouth of Monocacy Road in late 2022 sued Quantum Loophole and its subcontractors for damage to their properties at the staging site for QLoop dredging and boring. They also allege that the subcontractors failed to get proper permits for the construction site, which was on or adjacent to private property. The land in question includes designated wetlands, farmland, and the future site of a conservation area for newly planted trees. County officials concur that the proper permits were not obtained, as did the local utility company, which has power lines in the area.
Terra Energy gave permission for the project to cross part of their land and stands to benefit in the future from the existence of QLoop, if a data center is ultimately built at the site of the defunct Dickerson power plant. (See “A New Era for the Dickerson Power Plant Property.”)
Developers in Frederick and Urbana have expressed interest and are known to have had discussions with Amazon Web Services about the possibility of a data center on land along I-270. The properties in question are close to local farms and low-density rural properties and communities. In addition, the land in question is part of the Sugarloaf Treasured Landscape Management Plan. It is currently zoned for agriculture or conservation and debate continues on how it will be zoned in the future. (See “Protecting the Sugarloaf Mountain Area.”)
In its press materials for the QLoop project, Quantum Loophole says the following: “[We] offer an environmentally sound approach that reduces the overall carbon footprint while fully enabling powered land with the highest level of connectivity, reliability, and security.” SCA believes these claims need careful monitoring over time. We will track the project alongside Sugarloaf Alliance a collective of 450 Frederick County residents and other concerned citizens.