Potential Botetourt Data Center Could Be Google's Thirstiest in Virginia, Prompting Water Wars
- Think Big
- Jul 29
- 7 min read
With the chance of a major data center, the Roanoke region faces one of the most territorial tests over water since Roanoke and Roanoke County formed the water authority in 2004.
A potential $1 billion Google data center could suck out millions of gallons of water from Carvins Cove each day to cool its computers.
It would be the largest consuming customer of the Western Virginia Water Authority — by at least sixfold.
That prospect prompted Roanoke City and Roanoke County leaders to ask Botetourt County — where the tech giant bought land last month — to potentially hand over 30 percent of any data center revenue windfalls, 15 percent each, until officials can replace the water loss.
Botetourt and the water authority say they’re hashing out an agreement to increase water service to the county’s Greenfield industrial park, where a company tied to Google purchased 312 acres for about $14 million. The plan could involve raising the dam height at Carvins Cove to increase the reservoir's capacity, said water authority Director Mike McEvoy, who added that more than a dozen options are in play. Such as building a new reservoir. Or using wastewater to cool a data center. At Carvins Cove, even “dock extensions” because of declining or increasing water levels if the dam height is raised, could be needed.
With the mere chance of a major data center, the Roanoke region faces one of the most territorial tests over water since Roanoke and Roanoke County formed the water authority in 2004. That move was made — and applauded by the region — because of two droughts that prompted sharing water via the valley’s largest reservoirs, Carvins Cove and Spring Hollow.
“It might be good for Botetourt County. It might be good for the region. But what I see are a lot of risks with this,” said Roanoke Vice Mayor Terry McGuire of a potential data center project.
McGuire listed them off: depletion of Carvins Cove by a single user, the possible negative impacts on recreation and outdoors tourism, conditions in extreme drought, potential increases to utility bills for water and power, and the high costs of a major project such as a new reservoir.
“This could hamstring Roanoke,” McGuire said.
And, with the projection of about 50 jobs per potential Botetourt County data center, McGuire said: “We’re not talking about 1,000 jobs. Or 500 jobs. Or 100 jobs.”
The Roanoke council wasn’t briefed on the Boetourt project until March, even though discussions about it started as early as a year and a half ago, Mayor Joe Cobb said.
“I’m trying to be diplomatic,” Cobb said. “To have Google here is fantastic. It’s a big win.”
However, Cobb said it’s the council and city administration’s job to now seek information about a project that could significantly impact its resources.
“I would at least like to have some acknowledgment that those questions are important,” he said.
Cobb said Tuesday there has been discussion of a follow-up meeting with those involved in the project, but nothing has been scheduled.
'Unprecedented scale' of AI boom
The water authority board will vote on a deal with the company involved with any data center, as well as a water replacement plan with Botetourt County, according to McEvoy. Roanoke and Roanoke County each have three seats on the board; Botetourt and Franklin County each have one. The date of any such votes is not scheduled yet, McEvoy said.
The infrastructure costs to get water to Greenfield will be paid by the company, McEvoy said. At least initially, the water would come from Carvins Cove, he said. Whether water will eventually be drawn from the Spring Hollow Reservoir would come later, he said.
A draft agreement between Botetourt and the water authority states a potential data center campus could need between 2 million and 8 million gallons of water daily, Cardinal News reported. Botetourt released the record to The Rambler Friday but redacted the exact numbers, citing an exemption for “proprietary information,” though the phrase “million gallons” remained.
McEvoy has said he cannot talk about some aspects of the Google plans, such as projected water usage, because he’s signed a confidentiality agreement. McEvoy said he’s signed another secrecy deal with a company that could build a data center at Wood Haven Technology Park in Roanoke County. Those negotiations are not at an active stage currently, he said.
Cobb and McGuire said it’s their understanding that the 2 million to 8 million gallon numbers are being estimated for the potential Botetourt County data center project.
Even at a low end of 2 million gallons, such daily consumption would rank a data center as Google’s most thirsty in Virginia, and the fourth-largest consumer worldwide, according to a Rambler analysis of Google’s 2025 environmental report.
Eight million gallons per day would be the rough equivalent of adding the city of Salem, twice over, to the water authority’s network. So far this July, Salem’s population of 25,000 averaged 4.15 million gallons per day, according to a city spokesman.
Landon Marston, an engineering professor at Virginia Tech who studies water management, said a data center consumption range of 2 to 8 million gallons daily “is not entirely outside the realm of possibility for a massive, fully built-out campus dedicated to next-generation AI, which is significantly more resource-intensive than traditional data storage.”
The newest and largest facilities typically use between 1 and 5 million gallons daily, he said.
“So, while the high end of that estimate is very large, it reflects the unprecedented scale of infrastructure being planned for the AI boom,” Marston wrote in an email.
Currently, the thirstiest Western Virginia Water Authority consumer is the valley’s Coca-Cola bottling plant, McEvoy said. It was listed as the top user in 2024 at 270,000 gallons daily, according to the authority’s annual report.
However, the authority has capacity – including the ability to treat close to 40 million gallons a day that it’s not using now, according to McEvoy and data found in authority reports.
“We have a lot of surface water storage for a community our size,” said McEvoy.
Also, the use of wastewater for a data center’s needs – and others – is a legitimate possibility, he said. That is helped by the fact that the region’s effluent, due to lower amounts of natural contaminants, is of better quality, he said.
The potential data center project is expediting a state required water resource plan to ensure future supply in the region. The authority and its members hadn’t thought they’d need it until 2055 to 2060. The goal now is to get it done by 2040, McEvoy said.
'We would expect an equal arrangement'
Botetourt and regional economic development officials have trumpeted the announcement of Google’s land purchase. But the tech giant’s name does not appear in contracts, and Google emphasized there are no formal development plans.
“I'd like to clarify that at this stage we have only announced a land purchase for a potential data center,” Devon Smiley, a Google spokesperson, said in an email, underlining the word.
Smiley also pointed to Google blog posts that describe its sustainability measures around data centers and efforts to work with local experts to mitigate climate risks.
“Wherever we use water, we are committed to doing so responsibly. This includes using alternatives to freshwater whenever possible, like wastewater, industrial water, or even seawater,” one blog from 2022 states. “Last year, our global data center fleet consumed approximately 4.3 billion gallons of water. This is comparable to the water needed to irrigate and maintain 29 golf courses in the southwest U.S. each year.” (For 2024, Google’s data center consumption was 7.8 billion gallons, according to its latest environmental report.)
Botetourt County Administrator Garry Larrowe downplayed the 2 to 8 million gallon range.
“Any numbers that have been thrown out were just educated guesses about growth within Botetourt,” Larrowe said. “It is not directly related to any particular project. It’s related to the entire usage in the community and the county.”
However, the redacted draft agreement between Botetourt and the water authority proposes that “as part of an economic development project,” on the land purchased by Google, the authority should “make available to the Project and its Owner, as hereinafter defined, on or about January 1, 2028, a water supply capacity of [redacted] million gallons per day (mgd) and a wastewater service capacity of [redacted].” The record goes on to state Botetourt would pay up to $100 million, and a sliding scale up to $300 million, for the water replacement infrastructure, with the water authority on the hook for remaining costs.
On June 9, Cobb, the Roanoke mayor, cited potential water usage of “up to 8 million gallons per day” in asking Botetourt to “remit 15% of its annual tax revenue generated from the Project to the City until water capacity is fully restored.”
Roanoke County leaders followed suit in a June 23 letter.
“While Roanoke County has not made a similar request to Botetourt County, as an equal partner in the formation of both the Authority and its principal water supplies, we would expect an equal arrangement should such an arrangement be made with Roanoke City,” Roanoke County administrator Richard Caywood wrote.
Caywood said in an interview that he thinks a potential data center project would be a boon but that Roanoke County wanted to ensure that it had enough water for future projects.
“The first knee-jerk reaction from any of us on the board is, you know, ‘Are we going to be sacrificing drinking water for chip water, for cooling down chips?” David Radford, chairman of the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors, said.
But Radford said some of their concerns have since been allayed. He said the county is unlikely to push for 15 percent of data center revenue — so long as Botetourt and the water authority can figure out a water replacement plan.
“You know, regionally, it's going to help everybody. So I don't think we need to pluck coins from this area because of this,” Radford said. “We've been assured that Botetourt County is going to replace the capacity, whatever they need to replace the capacity.”
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