Troubled Water:
Impacts on the environment
By Sydney Devory and Channing Shilling
Running water in the Woods Creek Trail in Lexington, Va. Video by Sydney Devory.
When you enter a 100-word AI prompt, you use one bottle of water, according to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, a nonprofit research institute.
When you ask AI to generate an image, you use the same amount of electricity as it would take to charge a smartphone to 100%.
How does it use water? Where is the energy coming from? What does it mean for the planet? ChatGPT could probably give you the answer. But at what cost?
Data centers are expanding from Northern Virginia into suburbs and rural counties all over the state. From Fauquier County to Botetourt, residents complain that they've been left in the dark by Big Tech companies, energy suppliers–and their elected officials.
Residents and scientists worry that local elected officials are prioritizing revenue over the impact on the environment. The dealmakers are signing non-disclosure agreements with tech companies that mandate secrecy and leave residents without answers to what they consider basic questions about how high their electric and water bills will go.
The explosion of data centers in Virginia is enabled by the lack of state regulations and public officials' penchant for approving projects without consideration of whether demands can be met and who will pay for it.
Residents wonder who will be prioritized when non-renewable resources dry up. An AI chatbot? Or a real person?
Edge of Electricity
Coal-fired power plants like American Electric Power's John Amos facility in Winfield, W.Va., emit pollutants in the atmosphere. Photo by Carolyn Kaster via the Associated Press.
Each data center campus houses hundreds of thousands of chips, servers and wires. They run 24/7 to power the internet.
Ten years ago, data centers could function on the normal power grid. But the explosion of AI has exponentially increased the demand for electricity. Some energy companies are trying to use more sustainable options like wind and solar farms. But alternative energy sources can't provide enough energy yet.
To meet the heightened demand from data centers, energy companies are expanding and building coal and natural gas plants, which emit air pollutants and contribute to global warming, according to a 2025 report by the University of Michigan's Ford School of Science, Technology and Public Policy.
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Coal-fired and natural gas plants in Maryland and West Virginia were set to shut down as part of efforts to meet carbon neutrality goals. But some of them will stay open beyond their scheduled closing dates to meet the increased energy demands.
Ann Bennett, the Sierra Club's data centers chair, said it is not possible to expand solar and wind energy fast enough to meet the current demand.
She said Virginia was reducing its reliance on fossil fuels. But now companies are switching back to coal and natural gas.
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For example, PJM, the organization that manages the regional electricity market, is building a $5.9 billion transmission line project to move energy from several coal plants in West Virginia to deliver electricity across Virginia, according to the University of Michigan report.
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In November 2025, the State Corporation Commission approved a $1.47 billion project for Dominion Energy to open six new natural gas plants.
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The Mountain Valley Pipeline transports natural gas throughout Virginia. Photo by Heather Rousseau, the Roanoke Times via the Associated Press.
"I think what we are really concerned about now is the natural gas usage," Bennett said. "Nobody is talking about the long-term environmental cost of burning fossil fuels. Nobody is talking about how to mitigate the climate effects."
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Natural gas plants emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and sometimes leak methane, a potent greenhouse gas. The drilling of wells and miles of pipeline to transport the gas disrupt ecosystems and communities, according to a February 2026 report by the Stanford University Energy Learning Hub.
The Stanford report also emphasizes that coal plants impact the environment by releasing carbon dioxide into the air, contributing to global warming. The coal plants also release sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury into the air, emitting smog, polluting water sources, and causing severe health issues like respiratory illnesses.
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Noise produced by the data centers is also a public health concern. The humming can cause hearing damage for workers and residents, according to a study by Yu Tao, a humanities and social sciences professor at Stevens Institute of Technology, and Peng Gao, a computer science professor at Virginia Tech. "This persistent noise adversely affects data center staff, nearby communities, and local wildlife, prompting increased public concern and a push for noise mitigation strategies," the study said.
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On April 13, 2026, Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed a bill mandating that localities require data center applicants to perform and submit a noise study of data centers located 500 feet from schools and homes.
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In case the power goes out
Wires and servers at Washington and Lee University's Peterson Co-Location Center in Lexington, Va. Photo by John Little.
Once the electricity makes it to the data center, it powers computer chips and servers 24/7. If the electricity goes out, the data center will lose power.
To avoid a blackout, data centers use diesel generators that turn on when power is lost. In Virginia, there are 4,631 generators on data center campuses, according to a 2025 report by the Piedmont Environmental Council, a nonprofit advocacy group.
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Diesel generators emit gases that harm people and the environment, Julie Bolthouse, the council's director of land use, wrote in the report.
"Even short-term exposure to diesel pollutants, lasting from just 30 minutes to 24 hours, can trigger breathing problems, especially for vulnerable individuals with preexisting lung conditions," according to a 2025 study by Shaolei Ren, a professor at the University of California Riverside, and Adam Wierman, a professor at the California Institute of Technology.
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Ren and Wierman estimate that respiratory-related illnesses caused by data centers will result in $20 billion per year in public health costs in the United States by 2028.
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Companies must apply for air permits from the state to operate diesel generators on the data center campuses. The emissions from diesel generators must be below 99 tons per year to be approved.
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Kyle Hart, the Mid-Atlantic director of the National Parks Conservation Association, said the permits are in place to protect the environment, but there is no cap on how many permits each data center campus can apply for.
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"We should start viewing them as a large source of air pollution," he said. "They are a large source of air pollution, but they're not permitted that way, and so that's a huge gap."
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Virginia's data centers
need more power
Transmission lines transport power throughout Virginia. Photo by Liz Trubeck.
There are over 663 operating data centers in Virginia and an additional 595 that are underway, according to a 2025 study by the American Edge Project, a technology advocacy group.
Virginia's data centers use about 7 gigawatts of electricity, which is comparable to the energy generated by 47 million solar panels. That's enough energy to support 5 million households, according to the Climate Collective Foundation, an environmental research group.
The Sierra Club of Virginia reported that more than half of all U.S. data center energy consumption occurs in Virginia.
But that's microscopic compared to what the state is going to need in the near future because of data centers. In February, Dominion Energy sought approval from the state to generate an additional 70 gigawatts of energy.
The energy demand in Virginia is projected to triple by 2050 if the number of data center projects continues to rise as they have been, according to a 2024 report by Virginia’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission.
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Graphs showing projected future energy demands if data centers continue to expand at their current rate.
Source: The 2024 Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commision report.
Infrastructure would need to be expanded for Dominion and PJM, the manager of regional power, to provide even a fraction of the energy that data centers are demanding, the commission report said.
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Infrastructure support includes building substations and expanding transmission lines to transport the power. Many residents are concerned that the infrastructure expansion will also be passed on to them, not just data center companies.
Dominion’s 2024 Integrated Resource Plan projects the average residential electricity bill will reach $315 within the next 15 years, more than doubling today's average of $142. That projection covers only the projects in the pipeline.
Dominion has planned 203 transmission projects by 2031, 62% of which involve data centers, according to Dominion’s 2024 IRP Supplement. Eighty-nine planned transmission projects are solely for data centers, projected to cost $2.4 billion, a price that will be paid for by utility ratepayers across the PJM footprint. Dominion did not share the projected costs in its original 2024 report. The utility only provided the numbers after the SCC ordered it to release specific information on data center growth.
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The data center site in Botetourt. Photo by Sydney Devory.
Bennett, the Sierra Club's data centers chair, said one of the reasons consumers will pay for a larger portion of the new infrastructure is because energy companies receive tax cuts.
The December legislative report said the state of Virginia exempted a total of $928.6 million in 2023 for data center projects. A report by The Sierra Club says that 8.6 million Virginia residents lost about $87 each from the tax exemption alone.
"These big, large industrial users have lower energy rates than we do. They demand more, and they've been able to make these deals where they pay less. But residents are billed at a higher rate," Bennett said. "We still have to pay for the infrastructure, but companies are using more and paying less."
Utilities like Dominion Energy are required by law to supply electricity to anyone who asks, including data centers.
"We've received an unprecedented amount of requests in the last two or three years," said Dan Kociola, Dominion's economic development market specialist.
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I think we have a big challenge ahead of us.
Dan Kociola
Economic development market specialist at Dominion Energy
Kociola said there is a four-year queue for customers with pending power requests. Some of the customers are data centers that have already been approved by local governments. But the power to supply them doesn't exist yet.
"Quite honestly, we do not have the power to power these data centers," Wesselink said. "The ones that we even have coming down the pipeline, they're not going to come to fruition as we think that they are, because we don't have the power."
Hart, of the National Parks Conservation Association, said he cannot wrap his head around how much 70 gigawatts of power is. "Dominion is flying completely blind. They profit from signing contracts," he said.
Kociola said it's not going to be easy to meet the energy demands.
"We don't believe all those [data centers] can go forward," he said. "I don't know what it looks like. I think we have a big challenge ahead of us."
Endangered ecosystems
Data center expansion has impacted ecosystems and residents' quality of life across rural Virginia.
"I love hiking, and I love that Roanoke is a very outdoorsy area," said Julie Bivins, a resident of Roanoke City and founder of the Southwest Virginia Data Center Alliance. "My favorite hike is Hayrock hike. It is in Daleville right there around Carvins Cove so, immediately I was like, 'What are we doing?' This is a big part of where we live and I don't want anything to happen to it."
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In Warrenton, Amazon bought land and got approval to build a data center. The plot of land Amazon planned to build the data center on was home to hundreds of trees and a habitat for the northern long-eared bat.
At the end of March 2023, a new endangered species list was going into effect, and the northern long-eared bat was on it. But before the bat was declared endangered, Amazon cut down all the trees on the proposed site to get around the incoming regulation, said Cindy Burbank, the founder of Protect Fauquier, a citizens' group.
The Blue Ridge Mountains from Freedom Point in Lexington, Va. Photo by Channing Shilling.
The site for the Google Data Center in Botetourt, Va. Drone footage taken by Julianna Stephenson.
Ecosystems are also impacted when additional infrastructure, like transmission lines, are built, Hart said. Transmission lines cut through meadows and habitats, threatening animals and the larger ecosystem. Pollinators, like bees, bats, butterflies and birds, are especially at risk. Pollinators are responsible for moving pollen between plants and supplying food to every other living animal.
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) requires companies to report whether there are endangered species in the area where they want to build. The DEQ also requires companies to assess how the development could impact endangered species.
Google submitted a DEQ application in February 2026 for the planned Google data center in Botetourt County. The DEQ is in the process of reviewing the application and said it will make a decision by the end of June.
"Does 20,000 acres cause entire species to blink out? Probably not," Hart said. "But, you know, you've got species, pollinators, in particular, that are already on the brink. And so you, you know, you factor in that potential habitat loss, and it's not good."
Water is another worry
Carvins Cove Resevoir, the water supply source for the Google Data Center in Botetourt County, Va. Photo by Sydney Devory.
In Botetourt, water consumption is one of the biggest concerns for residents in the county and in nearby Roanoke City because many of them still remember the 2002 drought.
In October 2002, Carvins Cove fell to 34.1 feet below its spillway, the lowest level ever recorded, according to the Western Virginia Water Authority.
Residents remember the water conservation efforts they made during the drought and wonder if the data center will be required to follow the same rules.
The water authority has a drought contingency plan with different stages based on how low water levels fall at Carvins Cove. Depending on the water level, the water authority advises or orders the public to conserve water, such as prohibiting residents from washing their cars and watering their plants.
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"It seems to me that if we are in stage two of water conservation, the water authority could charge me $500 for watering my fruit tree once a week. But a company valued above $4 trillion doesn't seem to have the same sort of direct limits being imposed," Roanoke resident Hunter Hartley said.
"We have tons of questions," said Scott Tomblin, who lives in Botetourt. "Where's the water going to come from to run this thing? We've got some places you used to be able to kayak down. You can't do it anymore because it's so low."
The 2024 U.S. Data Center Usage Report estimated that in 2023 data centers directly consumed 17 billion gallons. That number is projected to double by 2028.
Data centers are powered by computer chips, which get very hot. If they get too hot, the systems will fail. They use water that's pumped directly through internal cooling processes to cool computer equipment.
Air cooling systems use electricity to power fans to circulate cool air through data centers. They use less water but a lot more electricity. Water cooling systems are more common. They tap into local sources to run water through the data center to cool the chips.
But there are different data center cooling methods: Evaporative and closed-loop. The proposed Google data center in Botetourt will use evaporative cooling.
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People fishing along the Cherry Blossom Trail in Botetourt County, Va.
Photo by Jordan Hoover.
Evaporative cooling runs water throughout the data center until it gets hot. Two-thirds of the hot water is released into the air through evaporative vapors.
In Botetourt, the remaining third of the water would be sent to the wastewater treatment plant, where it would be cleaned and put back into the jurisdiction's water supply.
A closed-loop cooling system requires less water because it recycles the water it takes from local sources. Once the water gets hot, it's cooled back down using fans and other coolants. Then it's repeatedly cycled through the data center. But that process uses more electricity.
If data centers try to consume less energy, they will use more water. If they want to decrease water usage, they will consume more electricity.
But data centers consume more water than what is used to cool the facility. Data centers also consume water indirectly through their electricity demands.
Fossil fuel plants generate the electricity that data centers need, and they need water to cool themselves. The Data Center Usage report said fossil-fuel plants consumed an additional 211 billion gallons of water solely to power for data centers in 2023.
Water in Botetourt
Photo by Julianna Stephenson.
On Sept. 10, 2025, the Western Virginia Water Authority announced that it had agreed to supply water to the Google data center in Botetourt County. The water authority will take water from the Carvins Cove Reservoir for the data center. About a month later, Michael McEvoy, the water authority's executive director, signed an agreement to provide the data center with 2 to 8 million gallons of water per day.
For several months, the public didn't know how much water the authority had agreed to provide. That's because members of the water authority, the Botetourt board of supervisors, economic development officials and others in county government had signed non-disclosure agreements with Google.
The numbers were made public in February 2025, when a judge required the water authority to release them after Henri Gendreau, founder of the Roanoke Rambler, filed a lawsuit. As a result, residents in Roanoke City got upset because their water also comes from Carvins Cove.
Graphic by Channing Shilling. Source: Western Virginia Water Authority and reporting by the Rockbridge Report.
Will Bulloss, the water authority's assistant director of strategy, innovation and sustainability, said the authority is conducting two water supply studies, both of which he said are not connected to the data center deal. But Google is paying for a portion of one of the studies, he said.
Wesselink, of the Sierra Club, said she's skeptical.
"Even if Google is paying for all of it, what if there's a drought? What if there's a situation where Carvins Cove, all of a sudden, can't utilize their water, and they have to take it from somewhere else? Is people's water on the line?" she said. "There are just so many situations where they can't guarantee that people won't be impacted."
Water authority officials insist that they can "initially supply the water." Bulloss and McEvoy refused to explain what they mean by the word initially when asked during a public meeting and in interviews with the Rockbridge Report.
"We can serve them now," McEvoy said. "We don't need the future water supply to serve them."
The data center might need more water, up to 8 million gallons a day, according to the agreement between Google and the water authority.
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A goal of the water supply studies is to identify possible alternative long-term water sources.
"I think that we need to bolster the existing infrastructure," said Dana Hargrove, an engineer contracted by the water authority to conduct the water supply studies. "All the authority's agreed to supply is the day one, the 2 million gallons per day."
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On Feb. 2, 2026, the water authority invited the public to observe a conversation between McEvoy and Hunter Hartley, a representative of the Southwest Virginia Data Center Transparency Alliance, the community group.
Forty minutes into the Q&A, the crowd seemed to be getting bored by a discussion dominated by technical terminology.
Hartley asked McEvoy whether ethics played a role in the decision to make a deal to supply water to the data center.
"When a development comes to us," McEvoy said, "either a locality or a private development, we do a technical analysis. We are engineers, it's kind of what we do. We don't make moral decisions about what water is going to be used for."
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