DEQ Report Highlights Major Problems for Eastern Virginia Groundwater Supply

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) this week released a long-awaited report on groundwater supplies in eastern Virginia that lays bare troubling recent trends that could worsen without significant intervention and if unchecked data center development continues.

DEQ found that the Virginia Coastal Plain (VCP) aquifer system, which roughly covers the portion of the Commonwealth that stretches from Interstate 95 to the Chesapeake Bay, is stressed to the point where groundwater resources would be unlikely to support significant future growth or economic development in much of eastern Virginia.

Other key findings in the report include:

• Groundwater supply east of I-95 is constrained and current projections indicate declining availability in the near future
• Major withdrawals have caused inland groundwater levels to decline below sea level, conditions that cause land to sink and create the potential for salt water to move into freshwater aquifers
• There are no areas of the Virginia Coastal Plain where a new large groundwater withdrawal could pass the criteria necessary to get a groundwater withdrawal permit from DEQ

The report was mandated by legislation from Senator Richard Stuart (R-King George) that the General Assembly passed in 2024. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation supported the measure.

Chesapeake Bay Foundation Virginia Policy Manager Jay Ford issued the following statement:

“This report confirms what we have long known: Virginia’s groundwater and drinking water is increasingly at risk. Historic large industrial users, climate change, and the rapid proliferation of data centers have put us on an unsustainable path.”

“This is a system on the edge.”

“Without changes, Virginians could see escalating problems like accelerating saltwater intrusion, damaging the water supply and the broader Chesapeake Bay watershed ecosystem.”

“We cannot allow energy-guzzling data centers to continue depleting our drinking water supply and wreaking havoc on Virginia and the Bay. We urge the administration and the General Assembly to modernize the Commonwealth’s water resource laws and call on regulators to impose more stringent requirements on data centers’ water use.”