Virginia study on groundwater, data centers calls for tighter water regulations

Virginia, the world’s largest data center hub, has released a long-delayed study that examined the state’s eastern region groundwater supply and the resource-hungry industry’s possible impact on it, finding declines are likely in a critical aquifer due to population growth and industrial use, and urging stricter regulations. Produced by environmental scientists, the report—which the state had refused to release for more than six months—said regulators should have more authority to reject industrial water withdrawal permits, force entities to examine alternative sources of water and clamp down on users who might be using more water than they should. The report noted limits around publicly available information on data center water use but did not lay blame on the industry for the concerns raised about the aquifer. The groundwater supply in Virginia’s populous eastern coastal plain region “is constrained, and current projections indicate declining availability in the near future,” said the report, which Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s office provided to The Associated Press. Data centers use water, sometimes in large amounts, to cool their servers. Worries about data centers' impact on the quality and supply of both ground and surface water—and about tech companies’ failures to be as transparent as the public would like—have dogged projects around the country. The issues have become politically explosive heading into the midterm elections. Perhaps nowhere are those topics more resonant than in Virginia, home to hundreds of data centers with more under development and where the sustainability of groundwater, the supply stored naturally under the earth's surface, in the coastal eastern region has been a long-running concern. A wide range of interest groups had begun to publicly admonish the governor's administration for withholding the report; those reviewing it said its findings were sobering. “We’re standing on the ledge,” said Jay Ford, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Virginia policy manager. Virginia enacted its first groundwater law in 1973, but legislators acknowledged it was “too permissive” and tightened it in 1992, the report said. The law remains in effect, but the report warns it should be strengthened again. This article was provided by The Associated Press.