The Truth Behind Data Center Water Claims: A Closer Look at Virginia’s Growing Crisis

Driving along Route 1 near Crane’s Corner in Stafford County, I recently noticed a striking new billboard that stopped me in my tracks. The advertisement boldly proclaimed that “many data centers use NO WATER 96% of the time” and that “many don’t use water at all.” Almost simultaneously, similar messaging began appearing repeatedly in the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star, painting a picture of data centers as environmentally responsible neighbors “building responsibly” and encouraging readers to “get the facts.” These polished advertisements, funded by VirginiaConnects.com, a pro-data center industry organization backed by major developers including Amazon, STACK, and Vantage, represent something far more concerning than simple corporate marketing. They represent a carefully crafted public relations campaign designed to counter growing community opposition to data center development across Virginia.

The timing of this advertising blitz is no coincidence. Communities throughout the state have been raising legitimate, fact-based concerns about data centers’ impacts on our landscape, water resources, power grid, and quality of life. From noise pollution to air quality concerns, residents have watched with growing alarm as massive facilities spring up across the Commonwealth. In response, the industry has mobilized an aggressive counter-offensive. Beyond the billboards and newspaper ads, VirginiaConnects.com has deployed massive text message campaigns and mailers, particularly in Prince William County, where opposition has been especially vocal. My colleagues Ranjit Singh and Eric Bonds recently exposed this propaganda strategy in their excellent analysis, pointing out that this is fundamentally a corporate environmental blame game designed to shift responsibility and obscure the true costs of data center development.

Let’s examine what the industry doesn’t want you to know about water consumption. The claim that data centers use no water 96% of the time is not just misleading—it’s demonstrably false. Consider first the construction phase: building a single large data center requires enormous amounts of water before the first server even hums to life. The concrete foundation alone can consume approximately 200,000 gallons, and when you factor in all construction materials for a large 200-megawatt facility, the total water footprint ranges from 26 to over 350 million gallons. This doesn’t even account for the water embedded in manufacturing the chips, servers, and other equipment that fill these facilities. According to research from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a staggering 90% to 93% of a data center’s total water footprint comes from electricity generation alone—the power plants that keep these energy-hungry facilities running consume vastly more water than the data centers themselves report using.

The industry’s focus on operational cooling water conveniently ignores these massive indirect water costs. Even when we do examine operational use, the picture is troubling. Large data centers can consume hundreds of thousands of gallons of water daily for evaporative cooling systems. And here’s a critical detail the industry rarely mentions: even closed-loop systems, which supposedly recycle water, can lose up to 60% of that water to evaporation, preventing it from ever returning to our watersheds. Non-disclosure agreements have long shielded the true scale of data center water consumption from public scrutiny, making it nearly impossible for communities to make informed decisions about development proposals.

The situation in Virginia has reached a critical juncture. A recent Department of Environmental Quality aquifer study, whose release was delayed for six months by state officials, reveals that aquifers across the eastern half of Virginia are under severe stress. The findings are so alarming that bipartisan state senators Richard Stuart and Russet Perry have demanded Governor Abigail Spanberger call lawmakers back for a special session to address the crisis. The study shows “virtually no capacity” in the Coastal Plain aquifer for large new uses such as data centers. According to the Associated Press, there likely isn’t enough groundwater to sustainably accommodate any big new industrial user. This means Virginia simply cannot accommodate more data centers without jeopardizing water supplies for existing residents, farms, and businesses.

The broader water picture is equally dire. The Potomac River, which serves as the primary drinking water source for over two million Virginians, has been named the nation’s most endangered river. The Rappahannock River continues to rank among the nation’s most threatened waterways. We are facing a serious water crisis not just in the arid West, where such problems have long been recognized, but right here in Virginia. Climate change is intensifying drought conditions, and the cumulative demands of data center development are pushing our water systems to the breaking point. The Guardian recently reported that a majority of new data centers in the United States are being built on drought-hit land, and Virginia is no exception to this troubling trend.

So what about that “96% no water” figure that appears so prominently in industry advertising? It appears to be a contrived number, manufactured specifically as a public relations tool. It’s not verified in any water service agreements, and it doesn’t reflect the reality of how data centers actually operate. The claim that “many don’t use water at all” is similarly misleading, ignoring the vast water footprint embedded in construction materials, electricity generation, and equipment manufacturing. When VirginiaConnects.com tells you that data centers are “building responsibly,” they’re not giving you facts—they’re giving you corporate spin designed to obscure the truth.

The bottom line is this: the information being spread by the data center industry is not just misleading; it is outright false. Their sophisticated public relations campaign is corporate-speak for disinformation, falsehoods, and lies. And this matters enormously because communities across Virginia are making critical decisions about their water future based on incomplete and distorted information. We cannot afford to let well-funded propaganda campaigns drown out the truth about our water crisis. Our aquifers are stressed, our rivers are endangered, and our communities are at risk. The data center industry would have you believe they’re being good neighbors, but the evidence tells a very different story. It’s time to look past the billboards and glossy advertisements and confront the real costs of data center development before it’s too late. Our water, our environment, and our communities depend on it.