Across Southwest Virginia, more and more data centers have been proposed to various localities. One of the larger ones is in Botetourt County, which has garnered controversy from residents.
Google purchased the 312-acre parcel of land in 2025, and there are other similarly-sized data centers in the U.S. already, like the 375-acre center in Midlothian, Texas, and 275 acres Papillion, Nebraska.
Google’s 2024 environmental report found that their data centers use around 6 billion gallons of water per year worldwide.
Midlothian and Papillion were ranked as 11th and 12th of the top 15 U.S. users, with 136 million gallons and 135 million gallons, respectively, for consumed potable water.
Google does replenish some freshwater supplies. In 2022, only 6% was replenished, but in 2023, that number rose to 18%. It then rose to 64% in 2024. Google has set the goal to 120% by 2030.
In addition to water stewardship programs, Google data center campuses work on waste reduction by reducing food waste and recycling used hardware. Landscaping also plays a role as Google claims to work on adding new habitats in some campuses that support certain pollinators.