Data centers are drinking more water, but overall water use in Virginia has gone down anyway. Here are the numbers.

Google's upcoming data center in Botetourt County, Virginia, is slated to become the Western Virginia Water Authority's largest water user, with a projected demand of 1.2 million gallons per day, contracted for up to 2 million. This has generated controversy, though Google attempts to contextualize this usage by comparing it to golf courses. According to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality's (DEQ) annual water report, statewide water withdrawals declined by 5% from 2019 to 2024, a reduction of 288.61 billion gallons per day. This decline is largely attributed to the retirement of coal-fired power plants, despite an increase in water use for nuclear power and public water supplies.

While data centers contribute to the increase in public water use, the exact impact is difficult to isolate from population growth and more efficient household appliances. The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) estimated data centers used 2.1 billion gallons of water in Virginia in 2023, an 86% increase from 2019, representing about 0.5% of the state's total. A more recent estimate by the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, based on U.S. Geological Survey data, places data center water use at 1.4% of the state's total. The article also notes that localities in Virginia have committed to supplying Amazon data centers with 19.6 million gallons of water daily across Richmond and Northern Virginia, placing it among the state's top corporate water users if aggregated. Comparisons are drawn between Google's Botetourt facility's water demand and other local industrial and agricultural users, noting that new projects often face scrutiny that established users do not.