Caroline County officials were caught off guard last month when the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality suspended the process for the county to obtain a permit to withdraw 13.9 million gallons of water per day from the Rappahannock River.
The DEQ’s decision could extend the approval process well into next year or beyond.
The agency had tentatively approved the permit before a public hearing last month, at which dissenters came out in droves. Their concerns included the exercise of eminent domain on 11 acres of a farmer’s property on Tidewater Trail to construct a water intake facility.
But perhaps the biggest blow to the county’s efforts was the staunch criticism of the proposal by Sen. Richard Stuart (R-Westmoreland) and Del. Hilary Pugh Kent (R-Richmond County) who represent Caroline in the General Assembly.
Kent represents a portion of the county, including the town seat of Bowling Green, which is enduring a water crisis, according to a letter to town officials from the Office of Drinking Water’s Richmond Field Office.
Stuart said it’s his job to question county officials when a project they’re considering impacts citizens in other jurisdictions within his district.
Stuart, who’s on a quest to rein in data centers across the region, told the Free Press that the Virginia constitution makes it clear that natural resources are for the benefit and enjoyment of citizens — not large corporations that potentially require tremendous amounts of water and power to operate facilities.
Jeff Sili, who represents the Bowling Green District on the Caroline Board of Supervisors, told the Free Press recently that Stuart and Kent “should have done some research before speaking out against a permit which will be greatly needed for the future needs of our town residents and businesses.”
County officials did not speak at the DEQ public hearing and have been mostly quiet on the project since the board of supervisors approved it by a 6-0 vote in June. The silence is due to pending litigation from Cory Garrett, the fifth-generation farmer whose land they obtained with hopes of building the water intake facility.
Stuart said that if the county needs water for citizens, then it should modify the permit request to remove business needs and then he would support it.
However, Sili said that as part of the permitting process, the DEQ required that the county project business water needs in the Carmel Church area 30 years into the future, which is why commercial growth — particularly data centers — was mentioned in the permit application. Sili also noted that any data centers in Carmel Church, which he did not vote to support, will not need the permit to operate.
“I know some data center opponents have hung their hat on that denial of the permit,” Sili said. “But the approved and by-right data centers will be serviced by county water which lies in a different aquifer.”
Bowling Green’s water woes
In addition to facilitating business growth, county officials also stress the need for drinking water, particularly in Bowling Green, where, in August, town officials received a notice detailing violations of the Public Water Supplies law. The notice states that the town’s wells were over the legal limit for gross alpha emitters — or radioactive elements that release energy in the form of alpha particles when they decay. Those elements include uranium, thorium, radium, lead, radon or polonium.
In June 2023, radiological results from one well in the town showed 40 pCi/L for gross alpha emitters (15 is acceptable). Other wells and entry points in the Town Waterworks system ranged from 16-31 pCi/L.
On Jan. 18 of this year, results from two entry points showed a pCi/L of 26 and 30.
In March, the Office of Drinking Water (ODW) issued the town a Notice of Alleged Violations that two wells exceeded the Primary Maximum Contaminant Level for gross alpha emitters. Town officials met with the Office of Drinking Water and the University of Maryland Environmental Finance Center on April 29 to discuss the alleged violations and methods to bring the town back into compliance, as well as the funding required to do so.
In May, ODW and town officials met and discussed drilling a well to replace one of the wells in violation and analyzing water quality at the new well. After that, the next step would be determining treatment, pending funding available to the town.
Town officials were also instructed to submit to the ODW a Corrective Action Plan (CAP), under which the town must maintain compliance with regulations for two consecutive years to satisfy compliance. The town must submit quarterly reviews to the Richmond Field Office and a final report verifying that the CAP was completed.
Stuart said he was unaware of the water needs in Bowling Green but reiterated that the county should modify its permit application and perhaps ask for 5 million gallons a day instead of 13.9 million to support drinking water — not business growth.
“I absolutely, positively support getting the residents of Bowling Green water and the citizens of the county water,” Stuart said. “If they need it from the Rappahannock, that’s what we would do. They could do that fairly easily. All they have to do is modify their permit.”
Stuart pledges to keep fighting
Stuart asked the DEQ to implore Caroline Director of Public Utilities Joey Schiebel to clarify six concerns — three in relation to the intake on the Rappahannock and the same three related to discharges at Polecat Creek and the Mattaponi River — because of his worries that the permit application states the county “wants to shift water all the way to Carmel Church for data centers.”
A letter from Eric Seavey, manager of the Office of Water Withdrawal Permitting for the DEQ, to Schiebel requested that the county provide a report within 60 days addressing several concerns raised during the recent public hearing.
Stuart does not hide that he is no fan of data centers, although he acknowledged that improved technology could potentially decrease their water usage.
Earlier this year, he introduced a bill in the General Assembly that would’ve directed the DEQ and the State Water Control Board to prioritize water withdrawals for human consumption and food production in all permitting and regulatory processes related to groundwater and surface water resources.
The bill failed 8-2 at the House subcommittee level. Stuart also introduced a bill that would require the DEQ to enforce a five-year moratorium on the issuance of any new groundwater or surface water withdrawal permits except for drinking water. After the bill gained no traction, Stuart requested the Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources committee to strike it.
Those two pieces of legislation and other bills introduced by Stuart were aimed at restricting data centers. Stuart said he is not done fighting against developments that he believes too greatly impact natural resources and don’t create enough jobs.
“We have a proliferation of data centers in our region,” Stuart said. “I still don’t understand that because I cannot, for the life of me, I wish somebody would explain to me how a data center is good economic development for our region because they don’t create any jobs. They pay some taxes, yes, but they don’t create jobs, and we have limited natural resources, limited land, limited water, limited power and we should be focused on economic development that creates jobs.”
Stuart, who also serves as the King George County interim county attorney, advised its board of supervisors to attempt to renegotiate a performance agreement with Amazon Data Services to construct a data center in the county.
Stuart said although his multiple attempts to create legislation to limit data centers failed, he isn’t done.
“I plan on submitting quite a few bills [for 2025], but I’m not going to discuss it now because I do not want to give the lobbyists time to fight against it,” Stuart said. “Unfortunately, [some data center companies] have hired every lobbyist in the state, it seems. And the minute they know what you’re going to do, they’re all swarming around like bees trying to kill your bill. So, I’m not going to introduce it until the very last minute.”
