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By Matt de Simone
Google representatives addressed questions from Amsterdam District residents about the proposed Greenfield data center campus during a town hall Thursday, discussing water use, construction, cooling, environmental permitting, electrical infrastructure and other concerns.
The town hall was limited to Amsterdam District residents because of the venue’s capacity, according to Botetourt County. County Communications Manager Brent Watts said Supervisor Tim Snyder had announced the restriction on Facebook before the meeting and that it included members of the media.
Snyder said the decision was made to prioritize space for residents of the district, where the proposed data center would be located.
“The purpose of this town hall was to give residents of the Amsterdam District an opportunity to ask questions and hear directly about the Google Data Center project, which is located in their district,” Snyder said. “The venue had limited capacity, so the decision was made to prioritize space for Amsterdam District residents.”
Watts said the meeting quickly shifted from a planned presentation to a question-and-answer session.
“Honestly, they got through about three slides and it turned into a Q and A session,” Watts said.
The county has since published an indexed Q&A from the meeting containing 85 questions organized into 11 topics. The questions are identified as answered, partially answered with follow-up promised, not answered, or disputed by residents.
Among the most significant topics was the project’s potential water use.
Google representatives said the current agreement with the Western Virginia Water Authority reserves capacity for up to 2 million gallons of water per day. They emphasized that the figure represents a maximum capacity reservation and does not necessarily reflect the project’s expected average daily consumption.
Representatives said Google would purchase potable water from the Water Authority and would be subject to the same drought-related curtailments as other customers.
Residents questioned whether the project would receive preferential treatment from the Water Authority. Google representatives said the company is a customer like other businesses and is not treated differently because it is a data center. Residents disputed that characterization, according to the county’s Q&A.
Google said it has investigated water-reuse systems for the project but determined that a reuse system was not feasible under the circumstances presented by the local water system. Representatives said the company is evaluating potential water-replenishment projects within the applicable watershed, but no specific project had been selected.
Representatives did not provide a specific contingency plan for what would happen if Google could not identify an acceptable replenishment project. The company also did not provide a specific Carvins Cove reservoir level at which the project would no longer receive water, saying that determination would be made by the Water Authority.
Google representatives said the project remains in an early stage, with site work anticipated during the third quarter of 2026, subject to required local permits. Vertical construction is anticipated to begin in 2027.
The county has approved site plans for limited mass grading, while the project continues to work through land-disturbance permitting needed for broader site work.
The project also has not received approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, according to the Q&A. Representatives said environmental permitting involving the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and the Army Corps remains underway, including reviews involving potential impacts to wetlands and streams.
Google representatives said wetlands and streams were identified during the project’s initial due diligence and that any impacts would be subject to state and federal permitting requirements.
Residents also asked about a portion of the Greenfield property that was clear-cut before the project was publicly announced. Representatives said the county had issued a timber permit while it owned the property but did not provide the exact date of the permit. Follow-up information was promised.
The question of whether the clear-cutting required a land-disturbance permit was not definitively answered.
The first planned data center building is now expected to use air cooling rather than water cooling. Google representatives said the change was made primarily because of project timing and would allow the first building to proceed more quickly without the same water-cooling infrastructure. They acknowledged that air cooling is more expensive and requires more electricity for cooling.
The cooling method for the other two planned buildings has not been finalized. Representatives said water cooling remains under consideration for those facilities.
Google representatives also acknowledged that air cooling could produce more noise. The company said it has an internal standard calling for sound levels at the property boundary of approximately 55 decibels.
Planned noise mitigation includes equipment enclosures, sound monitoring, vegetation, setbacks and site and building design. Representatives did not provide a detailed plan for where noise-monitoring equipment would be placed. They also did not have exact specifications for generator mufflers and promised follow-up information.
The project is expected to use diesel generators as backup power. Google representatives acknowledged that the generators produce emissions and said they will be regulated by the Virginia DEQ.
Representatives said the generators are not intended to operate continuously under normal conditions and that Google can shift computing workloads to other facilities during periods of high electrical demand.
Residents also questioned how construction could affect neighboring wells and historic properties.
The representatives said geotechnical studies are being conducted to evaluate groundwater conditions and identify wells on adjacent properties. They said the goal is to understand existing conditions and prevent construction from adversely affecting neighboring wells.
Google did not provide a specific contractual guarantee to repair a neighboring well if construction were determined to have caused damage. Residents also requested baseline testing of neighboring wells before construction, but representatives did not provide a definitive commitment to conduct independent baseline testing.
Blasting could be required during construction, although Google representatives said geotechnical studies were still underway to determine the amount of rock present and whether blasting would be necessary. Representatives said any blasting would be subject to regulatory requirements, advance notification and geotechnical studies.
The project also remains subject to environmental reviews concerning wetlands, streams and threatened and endangered species. Representatives referenced the tricolored bat as an endangered species relevant to the area but said it had not been identified on the portion of the site being developed.
They said the project remains planned for three data center buildings along with an office-type building described as a university or hub facility. They said the site is effectively capped at the planned number of data center buildings.
They also said the facility is a private Google Data Center and is not being developed for the federal government or military.
Google identified employment, economic development, tax revenue and infrastructure investment among the potential benefits of the project, but representatives did not provide a specific number of permanent or construction jobs during the meeting.
On utility rates, representatives said infrastructure investment associated with the project could prevent some costs from being passed on to utility ratepayers. They did not guarantee that Botetourt County residents would see lower utility bills as a direct result of the project.
Residents also asked about potential health effects, electromagnetic fields and property values. The Q&A notes that no site-specific long-term health study concerning electromagnetic exposure was identified during the meeting. The representatives also did not present an independent study establishing how the project would affect surrounding property values.
Several other questions remain open, including whether Google would have a contractual obligation to restore the property if the data center were abandoned.
Google representatives offered to provide additional information on topics including water use, water replenishment, wastewater chemistry, timber permits, generator specifications and environmental studies.
The Southwest Virginia Data Center Transparency Alliance (SWVA DCTA) criticized the meeting’s limited attendance, calling it a “private town hall,” and saying residents challenged Google’s responses. The group also criticized the exclusion of media and characterized the meeting as lacking transparency.
The county’s Q&A is available at https://www.botetourtva.gov/1071/Google-QA.
Looking at the proposed data center rending and this is one of three buildings, the addition of two more buildings would disturte a hung amount of property in Botetourt Country and displace alot of our wildlife so that the county can get more money from taxes to run the county? I would think the Board of Supervisors would want to help make the county a wonderful place to live but at the expense of losing what the land looks like around Amsterdam, Daleville. These three buildings would make Amsterdam and Daleville to look like a large metropolitan area which is what Daleville is starting to look like now. How much is enough? These buildings would be a huge eye sore for folks who visit our community. The folks of Amsterdam would have this eye sore in their backyards instead of the country scene they are used to now. I’m against this data center for the disruption of the beautiful country we have around us and the possibility of hurting our water system. I hope the supervisors will listern to the folks in our county and use “common sense” rather than how much “money” the county will get.