Data Centers are expanding across Virginia and they present serious impacts to our land and neighbors, water consumption, energy demand, carbon emissions, our electric bills, and our air quality and health. 

The Roanoke Group of of the Sierra Club, Virginia Chapter, fully supports the chapter's report, "Unconstrained Demand: Virginia's Data Center Expansion and Its Impacts." The Executive Summary from the report is provided below, and you can read the full Cumulative Impact Report on the Virginia Chapter's site.

Virginia Needs a Moratorium on Data Center Development

October 2026 - A Sierra Club Roanoke Group Position Statement

Virginia has become the center of the nation’s data-center boom, but the costs of that growth are becoming increasingly clear. Data centers consume enormous amounts of electricity and water, require massive amounts of land and infrastructure, and can impose long-term environmental and economic costs on communities. Sierra Club Roanoke calls for a moratorium on new data-center development in the Roanoke River watershed until the Commonwealth can determine whether the industry’s cumulative impacts on water, energy, land, climate, ratepayers and communities can be responsibly managed. This is not a call to reject technology or responsible economic development. It is a call to stop the rush, assess the consequences, and put the public interest ahead of an industry whose growth has proceeded far faster than Virginia's ability to evaluate its impacts.

The Need for a Moratorium

Virginia has already committed enormous resources to attracting data centers. Yet significant questions remain about their long-term impacts. Data centers are extraordinarily energy- intensive. Their rapid expansion is driving major increases in electricity demand and pressure for new generation, transmission lines and other infrastructure. Unless carefully controlled, this can prolong fossil fuel dependance and increase costs onto local households and businesses. Typically, they also consume substantial quantities of water for cooling. In a region which has experienced a severe drought this year, using scarce water resources for industrial computing should not be approved by our local governments.

Data centers environmental impacts extend beyond electricity and water. Data centers can occupy hundreds of acres, permanently alter landscapes by building over good agricultural land, increase noise and air pollution from backup generators, reduce wildlife habitat, and require building new roads, substations and transmission infrastructure. Plus, the economic benefits need to be examined. While data centers can generate local tax revenue, they create few permanent jobs compared with the huge scale of their facilities and resource demands. Our Roanoke Valley governments should determine whether these benefits truly compensate communities for the infrastructure and environmental costs. There is also a long-term economic risk. Artificial-intelligence technology is evolving extraordinarily rapidly. Virginia should not assume that today's enormous facilities will remain economically valuable for decades or that communities will not eventually be left with obsolete infrastructure and costly environmental liabilities.

The Botetourt County Data Center Project

The proposed Google Project Raspberry at Botetourt Center at Greenfield illustrates why a moratorium is urgently needed. Google has received a county land-disturbance permit allowing grading to begin on the approximately 312-acre site, but important state and federal environmental permits remain under review. Virginia’s DEQ is reviewing permits involving water protection and air emissions. The proposed campus includes three data-center buildings of approximately 300,000 square feet each, three substations and extensive supporting infrastructure.\ The fact that grading has begun does not mean that Virginia must allow this project to proceed. Sierra Club Roanoke calls for an immediate halt to further development and for state and local officials to use every available authority to prevent construction from proceeding until the project's full water, energy, environmental, economic and community impacts have been independently evaluated.

Stop the Rush Toward Another Roanoke County Data Center

A new potential data-center development at Wood Haven Technology Park in Roanoke County makes the issue particularly urgent for the Roanoke Valley. Clearview Dynamics is currently conducting a study of the project, with that process expected to continue into 2027. The company and regional economic-development officials have identified the project as a data center and are studying whether the site can accommodate its substantial power and water requirements. The Western Virginia Regional Industrial Facilities Authority has said that Spring Hollow Reservoir would serve the Wood Haven site. But this should not be treated as an isolated water source. The Western Virginia Water Authority says that Carvins Cove and Spring Hollow—the Valley's two largest reservoirs—are managed together to provide most of the region's water supply, and the major sources are interconnected through more than 1,300 miles of water lines. Spring Hollow holds approximately 3.2 billion gallons at full capacity, compared with approximately 6.4 billion gallons at Carvins Cove - but both are fed by tributaries of the Roanoke River. Thus, saying that a project will use "Spring Hollow rather than Carvins Cove" does not eliminate the broader concern: the water ultimately comes from a regional system whose resources must be protected for existing residents, businesses, agriculture, ecosystems and future generations. This concern is especially serious because the Roanoke region remains under drought conditions. State officials have compared the present conditions with the historic 2002 drought, when some Virginia communities actually ran out of water. In July, Salem and the Western Virginia Water Authority were already asking customers to conserve water because of drought conditions affecting precipitation, streamflow and groundwater. This is the wrong time to commit additional water resources to a new industrial facility whose need has not yet been demonstrated. Sierra Club Roanoke therefore calls for the Wood Haven data center proposal to be halted while Virginia conducts a comprehensive assessment of its water, energy, environmental and economic consequences.

Why the Data-Center and AI Boom Deserve a Pause

The argument for slowing down is no longer coming only from environmental organizations and local residents. In September, the leaders of several major AI companies—including Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceX, and Google DeepMind —were publicly speaking about the need for caution and a slowdown in the development of increasingly powerful AI systems. At the same time, enormous investments in the physical infrastructure required by AI are continuing. The uncertainty surrounding the future scale and direction of AI makes it irresponsible to assume that Virginia must continue approving data centers as rapidly as possible. Virginia should slow down because we do not yet know where this technology, its energy demands, or its economic consequences are headed. Governor Abigail Spanberger's September 2026 Data Center Accountability Framework is an acknowledgment that Virginia's previous approach has been inadequate. She has proposed stronger environmental protections, greater local control, limits on state subsidies, additional transparency, protections for ratepayers, and stronger requirements concerning energy, water, air pollution and noise. Those steps are welcome step but accountability is not the same as a moratorium. Virginia should pause new data-center development long enough to answer fundamental questions, such as: How much electricity will the industry ultimately require? Who will pay for the generation and transmission infrastructure? How will additional water withdrawals affect reservoirs, rivers, groundwater and ecosystems during drought? How many permanent jobs will individual facilities actually create? What are the cumulative impacts of hundreds of facilities across Virginia? What happens if the AI projections don’t materialize? Who will pay for obsolete facilities and environmental cleanup? And, are data centers truly the best use of Virginia's land, water and energy resources? Until these questions are answered, Virginia should impose a moratorium on new data-center approvals and construction.

Summary: Our Immediate Priorities

1. Establish a statewide moratorium on new data-center development.
2. Halt further development of the Google Project Raspberry data center in Botetourt County until all environmental, water, energy and economic impacts have been independently evaluated.
3. Stop the proposed Wood Haven data-center project in Roanoke County before it advances beyond the due-diligence stage.
4. Require full public disclosure of water consumption, electricity demand, infrastructure requirements, tax incentives, projected employment and environmental impacts for every proposed data center.
5. Require statewide and regional assessments rather than evaluating each data center as an isolated project.

Virginia's future should not be tied to an industry that consumes such large quantities of electricity and water while permanently transforming communities and landscapes. We need to stop the rush. We need a moratorium. And we need to decide what kind of Virginia we want before approving more data centers.

Local Impact - Google Data Center

July 2026 - Update and Call to Action

In the past year, much has been revealed, making it very obvious the proposed site of the Google data center is entirely inappropriate. Google initially proposed a data center, but, according to the Corps of Engineers’ notice in March of this year, they want to construct a “mission-critical data center campus,” called Project Raspberry — three data center buildings, each about 300,000 square feet, along with three substations, an office building of about 28,000 square feet, access roads, utilities, parking areas and stormwater management facilities. 

Google will not use power from Rocky Forge Wind. The 79 MW would be insufficient for such a huge facility. They will get their power from the grid.

The scale of the proposed “campus” amplifies the impact on neighboring residences to an unacceptable level. 

With Google indicating a need for 2 to 8 million gallons a day as coolant, it becomes very clear; our water resources cannot predictably sustain the extreme demand long-term. Factor in the deepening drought and this proposal fails dramatically to address sound resource management.

Call to action:

We urge local and state representatives to reject approvals for the Google multi-data center campus given the above serious concerns and impact. We also call on our members and fellow community members to reach out to your local and state representatives to share this critical information and to call on our elected officials to reject approvals. 

October, 2025

In December, 2024, after ten years Apex Clean Energy of Charlottesville had finally secured all permits, survived all legal challenges and with a few remaining site plan details to sort out with the county, was set to begin construction of Rocky Forge Wind in Botetourt County. But one key ingredient was missing, a buyer of the 79 MW production capacity. Google agreed to buy the power and in early February, 2025, work began. We celebrate the coming of Virginia’s first wind farm while facing the daunting challenges of the first data center in our area in Botetourt County.

As with most developments, scale is a major consideration. To what extent will the environment be impacted? The three major environmental impacts are: 

• Extreme energy demand - Google will use wind power instead of fossil fuels, a positive consideration.
• Occupancy of vast areas of land, with frequent incursion on farm land and neighborhoods – Google will locate in an industrial park designed for large industries, a positive consideration.
• Extreme demand on fresh water resources for cooling – This raises grave concerns. Google will have to explain how the consumption of millions of gallons of water daily will not pose a serious threat to the area’s water resources. We are in drought in western Virginia now, but have seen much worse. We haven’t seen our worst drought, given the ever-increasing frequency and ferocity of extreme weather events due to rapid climate change. Caution is imperative. You can make electricity. You cannot make water.

Read more about data center impacts in the Virginia Chapter report Executive Summary copied below, with a link to the full report. The summary and report include 6 Recommendations for Immediate Policy Interventions to share with elected officials. 

Executive Summary of "Unconstrained Demand: Virginia's Data Center Expansion and Its Impacts." 

Virginia is at the epicenter of a growing crisis driven by the rapid expansion of data centers coupled with a lack of policy protections. The surging demand for computing power, fueled by artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency, is placing unprecedented strain on the state’s energy grid, land, water resources, and health of local communities. This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the far-reaching scope and consequences of data center expansion, offers new data and outlines urgent state and local policy recommendations to safeguard Virginia’s future from a host of immediate and long-term challenges.

Impacts at a Glance

The rapid growth of data centers in Virginia has come with consequences that are largely unaddressed by state policy. With the world’s highest concentration of data centers, and facing a projected tripling of growth, Virginia cannot ignore the problem. The unchecked expansion of data centers has caused concern across many areas including: skyrocketing energy demand; rising consumer costs; severe water loss; environmental and health risks; land and community displacement; and, regulatory and policy failures.

IMPACTS TO LAND AND NEIGHBORHOODS

• Virginia could be home to nearly 1,300 data centers in the coming years.
• Over 390,000,000 square feet of data centers are proposed, built, or under construction.
• Central Virginia is expecting 290+ data centers, rivaling Northern Virginia’s existing hubs.
• In Fairfax County, data centers are increasingly encroaching on residential areas:
• 55% are within 200 feet of homes.
• 70% are within 500 feet of homes.

IMPACTS ON WATER

• A single large data center can consume 5 million gallons of water per day, enough to supply 50,000 people, impacting local water sources and often operating without disclosing its consumption, highlighting the industry’s ongoing lack of transparency.
• Loudoun County’s data centers alone used over 1 billion gallons of water in 2023.
• Across Virginia, data centers consumed over 2.1 billion gallons of water in 2023.

DEMAND FOR ENERGY

• More than half of all U.S. data center energy consumption occurs in Virginia.
• If unconstrained growth continues, energy demand will be well over 60 GW of power for
  data centers, the equivalent to 68 massive coal plants.

IMPACTS ON CARBON EMISSIONS

• Loudoun County’s carbon emissions are up over 50% attributed to data centers.
• Two massive data center projects in Pittsylvania County are tapping into the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) for fracked gas power.
• The proposed Balico Tech Campus plans to build a 3,500 MW fracked gas plant, nearly three times the size of any gas plant in Virginia today. 

IMPACTS ON ELECTRIC BILLS

• Dominion Energy projects that residential electric bills will rise from an average of $142.77 today to $315.25 by 2039—primarily due to the data center sector’s growing energy needs.
• Virginians are subsidizing the world’s internet, cloud services and artificial intelligence applications and paying for the infrastructure and energy that serve global corporations while reaping few local benefits.
• Across PJM territory, 62% of all planned transmission projects before 2031 service data centers, costing $2.4 billion, a burden that will fall on ratepayers’ monthly electric bills.

IMPACTS ON AIR QUALITY & HEALTH

• 8,910 generators have been approved for Virginia data centers, with nearly all of them being cheap, highly polluting Tier 2 models.
• DEQ has permitted these generators to run up to 500 hours per year—equivalent to 1.4 hours of daily diesel pollution per generator.
   

REGULATORY AND POLICY FAILURES

Despite the industry’s rapid expansion, state and local policymakers have largely failed to enact adequate oversight. The lack of transparency, minimal environmental protections, and unchecked tax incentives have created a regulatory “race to the bottom” to attract data centers, while leaving Virginia’s families and ratepayers to shoulder the long-term costs without clear protections.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMMEDIATE POLICY INTERVENTIONS:

1. Energy & Infrastructure Planning: Ensure data centers contribute to grid stability as well as fund necessary, clean, renewable energy infrastructure rather than shifting costs to ratepayers.
2. Fair Taxation: End the Data Center Tax Exemption, or place conditions, to ensure Big Tech builds efficient, renewable powered facilities.
3. Water Use Regulations: Impose limits on data center water consumption to protect local resources.
4. Stronger Environmental Protections: Require sustainable energy such as on-site renewable generation requirements and stricter emissions controls on backup generators.
5. Land Use Oversight: Establish state-level planning standards to prevent reckless expansion adjacent to residential areas and on agricultural land.
6. Transparency: Mandate full disclosure of energy and water use, emissions data, and expansion plans to allow for informed public discourse and policy decisions.

CONCLUSION

Without decisive action, the unchecked expansion of data centers will exacerbate an emerging energy crisis, increase pollution and impose unbearable energy costs on residents. Policymakers should focus on tipping the scales towards environmental sustainability and public well-being instead of rubber-stamping data centers in the name of more revenue. This report serves as both a warning and a call to action—we must manage data center growth before it is too late.