Beyond the Buildings: Virginia's Data Center Boom Raises Environmental Planning Concerns

As data center development accelerates, environmental advocates say the greatest challenge isn't the buildings themselves; it's planning for the energy, water and infrastructure needed to support them.

• By Stasia DeMarco
• July 23, 2026

As Virginia's data center industry continues its rapid expansion, environmental advocates say the state's biggest challenge isn't the buildings themselves; it's the unprecedented infrastructure required to support them.

Data centers are large facilities that house servers and networking equipment supporting cloud computing, artificial intelligence, digital storage and other online services. While the buildings have become a familiar sight across parts of Virginia, environmental advocates argue the larger story lies in the infrastructure needed to power and support them.

"We're dealing with multiple challenges because the scope and scale of data centers is so large," said Christopher Miller, president of the Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC).

PEC is tracking approximately 350 million to 370 million square feet of approved and proposed data center development across Virginia. Covering roughly 20,000 acres, Miller said it represents the state's largest category of future development.

"The footprint of the data centers themselves is considerable," Miller said. "That's only a small part of the footprint because the energy and water infrastructure required to support these facilities is astronomical. They're essentially big boxes full of computer chips, and supporting them requires an enormous amount of additional infrastructure."

The Infrastructure Behind the Boom

Miller said the industry's rapid growth is driving an unprecedented expansion of Virginia's energy system.

According to Miller, Dominion Energy has publicly reported receiving demand letters totaling more than 70 gigawatts of future electrical demand while continuing to add one to two gigawatts each month.

To illustrate the scale, he noted that Virginia's two nuclear power stations currently generate a combined 3.6 gigawatts of electricity.

"What we're talking about is essentially doubling the amount of power we produce on a regular basis," he said.

Meeting that demand, Miller said, will require far more than additional power generation.

"Depending on the power mix over the next 20 years, that could mean millions of acres of land, hundreds of billions of dollars in capital investment, and impacts ranging from noise and air pollution to water consumption, mining, heavy metals and uranium processing."

Planning For Long-Term Impacts

For Miller, the greatest concern is that the infrastructure buildout is moving forward without a comprehensive long-term strategy.

"We're about to undertake the biggest expansion of the energy system we've ever contemplated, and we have no plan from either Dominion or the state," he said.

Miller said policymakers have yet to fully evaluate how different development scenarios could affect communities and natural resources.

"We haven't analyzed what those planning choices would cause, how we're going to respond, how we're going to moderate them or how we're going to mitigate them," he said. "It's a terrifying picture because it's not only big, but also completely unplanned."

He also pointed to emerging concerns over air quality as developers increasingly consider on-site power generation to meet growing demand.

"Data centers complain they can't get connected to the grid fast enough, so the solution becomes generating electricity on site," Miller said. "We haven't monitored those emissions, modeled what they would mean for regional air quality, or modified regulations to account for that scenario."

Communities Feel the Effects

Mike Doble, a communications consultant with the Piedmont Environmental Council, said many of the concerns now surfacing stem from the speed of the industry's growth.

"The big issue we have is that there was no planning done for the level, the scope and the size of this industry almost anywhere," Doble said. "People weren't really prepared."

Doble said the organization is not opposed to data centers but believes future development should be guided by more deliberate planning.

"We're not against data centers," he said. "We're asking for a pause—a moratorium, whatever you want to call it—to plan how we actually make these things happen with the least amount of damage."

He said residents increasingly question the impacts of placing massive facilities adjacent to neighborhoods, including stormwater runoff, water resources and other environmental concerns.

"You end up having data centers built right next to neighborhoods," Doble said. "Residents are asking what kind of runoff or other impacts will reach the community, and by the time those questions are answered, remediation can become extremely expensive."

Miller said communities are already experiencing some of the effects of rapid growth.

"People have been complaining about noise from data centers for about five years," he said. "Local governments still don't have a satisfactory answer for regulating data center noise through zoning."

For Miller and Doble, the discussion extends well beyond the buildings themselves. As Virginia continues expanding its data center capacity, they argue the long-term environmental footprint will ultimately be determined by how the state plans for the energy, water and infrastructure needed to support that growth.