Water authority agrees to deals with Botetourt County and Google

BOTETOURT COUNTY, Va. (WDBJ) - Wednesday night, the Western Virginia Water Authority entered into two agreements that will set the future of water use for the Google data center coming to Botetourt County and the county as a whole.

Google has plans to build a large data center in Greenfield at the Botetourt County Industrial Complex. It’s estimated the data center will require up to 8 million gallons of water a day, making it by far the largest water user in the county.

“Initially, they’ll use water from Carvins Cove for their first phase. We just are not sure yet whether they’ll continue to use water from the Cove or will use treated wastewater for that, or water coming from another source. To get them started, they’ll be using water from the Cove, but for their buildout, that may be a different water source,” said Western Virginia Water Authority Executive Director Mike McEvoy.

Carvins Cove is the primary water source for Botetourt County, and the Western Virginia Water Authority said it will be able to support the needs of Google and the rest of the county, and there will be no interruption in service. However, the agreements made Wednesday night were about being proactive in finding other water sources.

“The first agreement is with Botetourt County, and that is a long-term water supply agreement. Botetourt County will be helping to fund a new water source for the Roanoke Valley,” said McEvoy. “We recognized that at some point, probably in the 2050-2060 timeframe, we’re going to need a new water source. This project afforded the opportunity to accelerate that a little bit.”

The county will fund the engineering studies and eventual construction of a new water source. McEvoy said there are as many as 15 possible options, and studies will be conducted to find the one that’s most cost-effective.

“We don’t know if that’s going to be optimizing existing sources, looking at wastewater reuse, basically using treated wastewater in non-potable applications, or looking at just a new reservoir somewhere,” he said.

Another option could be expanding Carvins Cove by increasing the height of its dam. The dam was built in 1929 and will eventually have to be replaced or renovated.

The water authority also reached an agreement with Google to have the company pay for all the necessary engineering and infrastructure to get water to the data center.

“There’s a lot of infrastructure that goes into place. We’ll have to put some more pipes in the ground, build some storage tanks, and things like that. That agreement covers all the construction and costs associated with that,” said McEvoy.

Google will also pay for the first study to examine all possible options for a new water source and narrow down the choices. A second study will then be conducted to do a more detailed breakdown of those options, which will be paid for by Botetourt County.

McEvoy said the first study will be completed sometime next year, and the second study will be completed by 2028. He said it typically takes around 20 years to develop a new water source in Virginia.