On June 9, the Louisa County Water Authority (LCWA) announced via a press release that due to a drought, Zion Crossroads and Lake Anna customers were under mandatory water restrictions.

LCWA Executive Director Pam Baughman made the decision to request mandatory water restrictions due to the decline in water supply and limited precipitation in the forecast. The press release states that little rainfall has caused the Green Springs/Zion Crossroads and New Bridge/Lake Anna well levels to drop below normal levels for this time of year. The restrictions don’t apply to the Northeast Creek Reservoir, which supplies water for the Town of Louisa and the Town of Mineral.

In The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) drought advisory, they stated that all of Virginia except for southeast Virginia like Isle of Wight County and the cities of Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, and Virginia Beach are in a drought watch while every other county is in a drought warning. Groundwater levels in 13 of the state’s 24 monitoring wells remain below the 10th percentile for this time of year and average statewide precipitation is approximately 7.5 inches below normal for the year, according to the drought advisory.

The entire list of restrictions can be found in the adjacent press release.

The restrictions apply to customers on the Green Springs/Zion Crossroads and New Bridge/Lake Anna Well systems and include no watering of outside shrubbery, trees, lawns, grass, and plants, no washing of automobiles, and no filling of swimming or wading pools requiring more than five gallons of water, among others. Any violation of the mandatory restrictions will be enforced as a Class 3 misdemeanor.

During the June 15 Louisa County Board of Supervisors (BoS) meeting, Mineral District Supervisor and Chairman Duane Adams stated he saw social media comments blaming data centers in response to the water restrictions.

Louisa County is home to two Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers, the Lake Anna Technology Campus near Kentucky Springs Road and the North Creek Technology Campus across from the North- east Creek Reservoir.

Adams noted that the data centers are not built yet, and only one building is functional at the Lake Anna campus but is still not served yet by the LCWA. He stated that he wanted to “clear up misconceptions” and that the water restrictions were put in place on two service areas that are served by ultra deep wells from the county. Everybody is on the same restrictions and has to follow the guidelines, Adams said.

When the two AWS campuses go online, they will get water from the Northeast Creek Reservoir. Adams stated the Northeast Creek Reservoir system is not subject to the water restrictions because there are no issues with the water level.

“I want the people to understand the facts of this water restriction,” Adams said. “I also want them to understand that Northeast Creek Reservoir is in fine shape. It’s in shape to be able to supply the water that the Town of Louisa and the Town of Mineral needs, and when we get these data centers up and running, they’ll be able to supply the water for the data centers.”

The Northeast Creek Reservoir has a daily safe yield of 3.2 million gallons a day; the reservoir supplies about 300,000 gallons per day and 500,000 gallons at peak demand to its customers in the two towns. According to the June 15 edition of Engage Louisa, Economic Development Director Andy Wade has previously said that the data center campuses would tap the reservoir for, on average, 630,000 gallons of cooling water per day.

The AWS data centers will not use water every day from the Northeast Creek Reservoir, Adams noted. In Louisa County, the data centers will rely on outside natural air-cooling for 96% of the year. Water-based cooling will only occur during the hottest periods of the year when the ambient air temperature exceeds roughly 85 degrees. Adams concluded by stating that whenever restrictions are in place, everyone is subject to the same rules.