The third and final component of Dominion Energy’s Loudoun County Reliability projects is the Mars to Golden transmission line. This project will install new 500kV transmission lines from the Golden substation near the intersection of Waxpool and Sully Roads down to the Mars substation near Old Ox and W Perimeter Roads. This project will help to satisfy the energy needs of new data center customers. View project overview map.

Virginia State Code mandates that Dominion Energy must provide service to new customers within their service area. We acknowledge that Dominion Energy has a variety of challenging constraints to provide power to areas in eastern Loudoun. This project is a component of collateral impacts caused by poor land use planning decisions that did not adequately account for utility corridors to accommodate growing community needs.

Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy believes that the orange line, route option 5, will have the least impact on wildlife and preserve as much as possible of what is left of the wildlife habitat in Eastern Loudoun. Route option 1, the red line, is the second-least impactful. All other route options cut through significant tracts of greenspace and are encumbered by open space easements. Routes 2,3, and 4 also all follow along Broad Run, and we have concerns about the impact of extensive construction in proximity to the creek. We are also adamantly opposed to the newly introduced route 3a, which would also severely disrupt the riparian corridor and have a direct impact to some residential properties.

Each of the proposed routes that use the Broad Run Stream Valley Corridor would have significant environmental impacts. Construction of this scale on steep slopes would have extremely negative impacts on water quality for the stream. The impact to the habitat of the Broad Run corridor would be especially adverse due to the development density of the area. This riparian corridor amidst the dense development of the Sterling area provides a haven for wildlife that have nowhere else to go.

Dominion held virtual and in-person open houses on the project on January 14 and 15, 2025. The State Corporation Commission (SCC) held local public hearings on September 18 and 29. Residents and representatives voiced their concerns about the currently proposed routes, with many echoing our environmental concerns. Comments regarding the project can still be submitted via GeoVoice. You can also submit comments to the SCC before their ruling in December. Further information on the project, including detailed and filterable Geovoice maps can be found on the Dominion Energy Project page. Check back here to read the comments Loudoun Wildlife will be submitting to the SCC on this project.

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