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A proposed 115-mile transmission line built to deliver more electricity to Northern Virginia could threaten the future of Carter Farms, a historic century farm in Unionville, according to farmer Michael Carter Jr.

Carter, an 11th-generation American farmer and the fifth generation of his family to work the Orange County property, grows organic African tropical vegetables and teaches workshops on cultivating and marketing ethnic produce.

The farm lies along routes being considered for the Valley Link Project, a joint venture involving Dominion Energy, FirstEnergy and Transource. The proposed 765-kilovolt “power interstate” would carry electricity from the Ohio River Valley to high-demand areas of Northern Virginia through the Joshua Falls–Yeat Project.

Plans call for a transmission line running from Campbell County to a new substation in Culpeper County, with lattice steel towers standing between 135 and 160 feet tall. Valley Link says it would acquire easements from affected landowners through negotiations based on third-party appraisals.

The project is intended to address soaring electricity demand associated with AI-ready data centers in Loudoun, Prince William and Fairfax counties. Dominion Energy projects that Virginia’s power demand will nearly double over the next 15 years, with data centers accounting for nearly all of that growth, according to an analysis by the Piedmont Environmental Council.

As of April 2026, Valley Link remained in its public-comment and route-refinement stage. Residents and elected officials in Goochland, Louisa, Orange and other rural counties have resisted the proposal, arguing that their communities would bear the costs of infrastructure serving data centers elsewhere.

A family legacy at risk

During a nearly 30-minute interview on March 13, Carter described himself as the family member currently responsible for preserving both the farm and its history.

“If I leave, the farm is done and the legacy is … done,” he said. “I feel that in this season it is my responsibility to be that connector … I’m carrying a baton right now for the family.”

Carter said construction of the line near the farm could determine whether he remains there and whether his son is encouraged to continue the family’s work.

“My son’s not being encouraged to stay, and they would know why I left,” he said, adding that health worries and frustration over the treatment of rural communities could drive him away.

One potential route would place a tower near a neighbor’s pond, while another tower could stand behind Carter Farms, he said. That would leave the property “sandwiched between two of those giant, massive lattice steel towers.”

Carter said childhood cancer cases among friends and relatives have shaped his concerns about exposure to electromagnetic fields. He does not trust industry assurances about possible health risks and said he might leave Virginia or even the country if the project proceeds near the farm.

Valley Link says scientists have studied electromagnetic fields since the 1970s without finding a cause-and-effect relationship between exposure from power lines and negative health effects. The project team says it is studying the fields associated with the proposed line and that engineers would design the infrastructure to minimize them.

Past losses shape present opposition

Carter views the project through what he called a history of racial and environmental discrimination in land use.

He pointed to the creation of Lake Anna and construction of the North Anna Power Station during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Building the nuclear plant’s cooling system required damming the North Anna River and flooding roughly 18,000 acres across Louisa, Orange and Spotsylvania counties.

Historical accounts indicate that at least 14 families were displaced, with some records identifying nine Black families among them. Carter said those losses have received little public recognition.

“Those families and that land is lost. Their history is lost, their heritage is lost,” he said, arguing that there should be monuments or another acknowledgment of what happened.

Carter Farms has already surrendered land for major infrastructure. The Colonial Pipeline crosses the property, and Carter recalled that his family received little compensation for the three or four affected acres—possibly about $1,500 per acre.

That one-time payment, he said, failed to account for the land’s long-term appreciation. If Valley Link acquires another easement, Carter believes property owners should receive a premium price and shares in the company so they can benefit financially as it grows.

Carter urges a Route 29 alternative

Carter suggested placing the transmission line along the existing Route 29 corridor between the Lynchburg area and Culpeper.

“The space is there,” he said, describing a corridor with widely separated homes and extensive forests, mountains and other open areas.

He argued that such a route would affect fewer residents than the options now under consideration across nine counties.

“You’re impacting a lot of individuals across nine counties,” Carter said. “You’re not impacting as much going down 29.”

His opposition also reflects broader questions about which places Virginia considers worth protecting. Carter invoked the state motto, “Sic Semper Tyrannis,” while describing a history in which Indigenous land was seized, enslaved Africans were denied freedom and modern infrastructure projects now threaten to devalue rural communities.

“I’m always curious about Virginia, what is sacred anymore,” he said. “I don’t see what’s sacred anymore, besides data centers.”

Carter contends that data centers, rather than ordinary residents, would receive the main benefit from Valley Link. His message to state regulators and local leaders in Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William counties was blunt: stop approving more of them.

“For the sake of their grandchildren, stop building data centers,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s destroying much more than it’s building up.”

Carter said the consequences extend beyond individual farms to family histories and the broader fabric of Virginia. In his view, land should be preserved by people who see themselves as its stewards—not surrendered to machines or to companies pursuing greater wealth.