AIBRIEF
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality says the eastern coastal plain aquifer is "constrained" and that only the far Northern Neck meets a 100 megawatt groundwater threshold for new sites.
Virginia's Department of Environmental Quality released a long-delayed groundwater study on Thursday that quantifies the regional constraint: aquifers east of Richmond cannot supply a new data center one-tenth the size of the facilities developers have been building. Only the far end of the Northern Neck, a rural sliver between the Potomac and the Rappahannock, has enough groundwater for a 100-megawatt site.
The agency had withheld the report for more than six months before providing it to the Associated Press through Gov. Abigail Spanberger's office. The DEQ found the eastern coastal plain aquifer "is constrained, and current projections indicate declining availability in the near future." The same aquifers supply drinking water for hundreds of thousands of Virginians.
The report did not lay blame on data centers for the projected decline. It flagged gaps in public data on data center water use and recommended that regulators get explicit authority to reject industrial withdrawal permits, force developers to examine alternative sources such as surface water, and crack down on users drawing more than permitted. Virginia is the world's largest data center hub; data centers use water to cool servers.
The report names no project as blocked, and its recommendations would need state legislative action to take effect. The single geography that clears the 100-megawatt groundwater bar sits at the far end of the Northern Neck, per local coverage of the AP story.