AWS Manassas Tanner Way data center, Manassas, Virginia

AWS Manassas Tanner Way is an operating Amazon data center complex on Tanner Way, outside the City of Manassas in Prince William County, Virginia, about 400 feet from Great Oak, a 291-home subdivision. Residents there have complained since the spring of 2022 that the rooftop air conditioning units, not the servers, run without pause and keep them awake. "It's like being on a tarmac with an airplane engine running constantly," said Fred Kurst, who lives in Great Oak.

Residents pressed the county for two years, taking their own decibel readings and asking supervisors to update a noise ordinance written in 1989. A county advisory group studied the problem starting in July 2023; its experts proposed limits of 52 decibels by day and 47 at night in residential areas. On October 30, 2025, the Board of County Supervisors instead voted 5 to 2 for looser limits, 73 decibels by day and 68 at night in industrial areas, above the 67 and 62 its own paid consultants had recommended.

"It (the new ordinance) doesn't provide any meaningful relief at all," said Kathy Kulick, a Gainesville resident who served on the advisory group. Amazon's Sarah Georgiades, the company's head of community engagement, said a completed sound study "demonstrates that (Amazon Web Services') efforts have significantly reduced sound, and that AWS is in compliance with applicable law." Enforcement of the new limits falls to Prince William County, which set aside $219,000 to hire two engineers to check compliance; officials estimate some facilities could take one to two years to comply.