I strongly support HB496 because Virginia is already the data center capital of the world, and new applications continue to come forward at a rapid pace. While data centers rely heavily on local resources, they often provide limited long-term economic benefit to surrounding communities, create relatively few jobs, and frequently receive significant tax incentives. As this industry expands, it is essential that communities fully understand the local impacts before projects are approved. Water use is one of my greatest concerns. Data centers can require enormous volumes of water for cooling, yet this information is not always clearly disclosed to the public or local decision-makers. Communities deserve transparency about how much water a proposed facility will use and whether that demand could strain local water systems or contribute to higher utility bills for residents. HB496 establishes a common-sense requirement that data center developers disclose expected water usage in advance and prevents that information from being hidden behind confidentiality agreements. If data centers depend on our shared water resources, they should be required to carry their own weight and plan responsibly for those needs. This bill helps ensure that economic development does not come at the expense of community affordability, water security, or long-term sustainability.

Dear Rep. Guzman, Thank you for introducing HB 496 to begin to hold data centers accountable to local communities for the true cost that they demand. Neither our water supply nor our power grid can sustain the level of planning that has gone unchecked for these developments. Your bill is a step in the right direction to demand transparency and give communities and community members the facts they need to make informed decisions for sustainable planning and development. I wholeheartedly support your measure. Sincerely, Lesley

I am concerned about the proliferation of data centers and other large development projects that impact local water and power. Transparency for governmental approval and planning requires the provision of water use disclosures. Projects should not be able to avoid these disclosures with the use of NDAs or confidentiality agreements. Requiring accurate water use disclosures is in the best interests of all citizens, now and in the future- and thus I strongly support HB 496.

I've lived in my townhome since May 2015. My water bill was $90 each quarter until one year ago. For the last 4 payments, it is now $149. I live in 20147, basically 'data center alley'. This 65% increase is NOT inflation. I do not think it is my responsibility, or my neighbors in the county, to pay for the entire world's gluttonous need for 'cloud storage'. As a teacher, I did NOT receive a 65% salary increase. Nor did the bus drivers, grocery store staff, nurses, accountants, etc that live in my neighborhood.

While Data Centers can provide much needed revenue to localities it is imperative that those decisions are made in the open and ALL the impacts of a data center are known and clearly available to the public, not just the revenue possibilities.

This is a clear government transparency issue and inhibits public water supply planning efforts. We need you to support House Bill 496.

To the Board of Western VA Water Authority, The impacts on our water supply by the Google AI data center planned for construction in Botetourt County concern me greatly. The negative effects of AI Data Centers are well documented, and they are known to be causing water crises in the country and water issues within Virginia as well. Granting Google unprecedented access to our water supply is unacceptable and infuriating, and I am extremely disappointed in how the Western Virginia Water Authority has handled this project thus far. As a Western Virginia Resident, we demand transparency moving forward as well as dialogue with experts on the impacts of this kind of data center on water and land usage. We also demand a town hall to address concerns about how the implementation of such a data center will effect our water supply and our wallets, with detailed and transparent explanations about how the water authority will mitigate damage. It is unacceptable to believe that Google will act with the people of Western Virginia in mind, as Google has no obligation to our natural resources or our communities, and they are only concerned with profits. I urge you to think on this; protect our water, our environment, and our people from corporations that are not concerned with how their construction effects local communities. It is your duty to the people of Western VA to protect our water and to listen to and address the public's concerns about the risks of such a project. Sincerely, Madeline Alford 2807 Wellesely Ct, Blacksburg, VA madelinebelle11@gmail.com

Please vote for this legislation. I bought our retirement home on the Rappahannock River. I love it! If proposed data centers build next door and suck up our well water for their business, or affect the quality of the River due to business use, I will be forced to move away from my dream home. Not to mention the impact on our house values.

I am very concerned about the impact of data centers’ water needs on our scarce freshwater sources. This bill is a no-brainer to at least quantify those needs as part of the planning/approval process.

Please support hb496. It is dishonest to withhold information on the use and effects that the data center will or may have on public drinking water. It appears that data centers have something to hide. Please don’t allow them to hide information from the public. In addition, please do not support the abolishment of qualified immunity for law enforcement officers. The only ones that would benefit are attorneys and criminals.

PLEASE, think of our next 100, 200, and 300 years in this country like our founding fathers did for us. As a farmer and rancher, I don’t know what I will do in 50 years. I really do not. No one will be able to afford to grow your food if the data centers down the road make everybody realize it pays more to be a welder or electrician. But we need it youth full of hope and striving for food production too! Our jails grow most of our food here. First generation farms won’t exist if we continue to deregulate data centers or take local governments power from them to do anything about it. Towns and Counties need help regulating data centers. We are in a serious and rare winter drought in Virginia. We cannot afford many more data centers, especially at the rate they are being built and way they are being operated. We really DONT know how exactly they operate because that information will not be disclosed by the companies.. how do we enforce unenforceable companies? “The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased, and not impaired, in value.” -Theodore Roosevelt, speech before Colorado Livestock Association, Denver, Colo., Aug. 29, 1910.

On behalf of Nature Forward, please support and vote "yes" on HB496. With the ever-growing desire of data centers to be located in Virginia, with an overwhelming number of data centers in Northern Virginia, it is more important than ever to integrate facts and information into the decision-making process for approvals of data centers and for better understanding the water impacts of by-right data center development. This bill would finally allow localities to get data on expected water use for new data centers, avoiding water usage NDAs and redacted redact water and wastewater service agreements. Local decision makers, the public, and even VA DEQ deserve to have a full understanding of potential impacts a data center could have on their localities' water resources to better allow for planning for potential impacts to water resources. This bill increases government transparency and improves local democracy, allowing the public and all decision makers to have the same knowledge developers and only a few others have regarding estimated water usage. Please support HB496 – the future of our drinking water depends on it.

A government spending taxpayer money to hide information from those same taxpayers sounds like a bad joke, but it is all too true. The Western Virginia Water Authority, which manages water for Roanoke, Botetourt, and Franklin Counties as well as Roanoke City, is currently appealing a judge's ruling against them to release the expected water usage rates of a proposed Google data center in Botetourt County. They redacted the numbers from draft contracts they released to the press, and argued in court that the rates--estimated to be between two and eight million gallons *per day*--are Google's "proprietary information," necessary for them to maintain their competitive edge. It's a small detail, just a few numbers among dozens of pages, they are keen to point out. But the failure to disclose those small but crucial numbers is emblematic of the contempt for basic openness and accountability that have characterized the Botetourt data center project from the beginning, negotiated in secret for over a year-and-a-half and with water access granted shortly thereafter without any public input. This is not even primarily a Google issue. Secrecy is the standard operating procedure for all these tech companies, and runs counter to the principles of good governence in all these localities. The Roanoke Valley is not the first region to look for answers and run up against the black wall of redactions and NDAs, but Virginia, with the opportunity to advance and pass HB496, can make it the last. https://www.roanokerambler.com/water-authority-seeks-emergency-appeal-pause-as-clock-ticks-on-releasing-google-data-center-information/

Dear Members of the General Assembly, I am writing as a concerned citizen of Essex County, Virginia, in strong support of House Bill 496. I care deeply about the long-term health of the endangered Rappahannock River and its fragile watershed ecosystem, along with the surrounding lands and communities that depend on these limited shared resources. Our region is experiencing a rapid increase in proposed and approved data center developments, often promoted as major economic wins. For economic development to truly benefit a community, however, the scale, nature, and pace of that development must align with local goals, needs, and resource availability. Achieving that alignment requires transparency and mutual understanding. Many of the massive data center projects currently under consideration raise serious concerns - particularly with respect to water use, energy demand, and rural encroachment. Data centers are known to require substantial and continuous water withdrawals. Yet under current practices, applicants may shield critical water use information through nondisclosure agreements, confidentiality provisions, and redactions in water and wastewater service agreements. This lack of transparency undermines informed decision-making and prevents meaningful public participation in processes that directly affect shared public resources. House Bill 496 addresses this problem directly and responsibly. By prohibiting the use of nondisclosure agreements and redactions to conceal water use data, and by requiring applicants to disclose expected annual and daily water use metrics the bill restores transparency to an essential public review process. These disclosures are critical to ensure the project aligns with community goals and for accurate resource planning, responsible infrastructure investment, and long-term water supply /drought resilience. The Rappahannock River watershed supports a fragile ecosystem and a pristine rural landscape of local, state, and national cultural, historical, and ecological significance. Once degraded, these resources cannot be easily restored. Beyond environmental impacts, unchecked and undisclosed water withdrawals pose risks to human health and wellbeing, agricultural viability, and the sustainability of existing residential and commercial water users. Over time, this erosion threatens the very fabric of communities carefully woven over more than three centuries. HB 496 empowers local governments, planners, and citizens with the information necessary to evaluate development proposals responsibly and to act in the best interests of the communities they represent. This is especially important for high-poverty and rural communities that lack in-house technical staff or the financial resources to engage in prolonged legal battles with large corporate developers. Transparency is a cornerstone of good governance, particularly when finite and irreplaceable resources are at stake. For these reasons, I strongly urge you to support and pass House Bill 496. This legislation is a critical step toward protecting Virginia’s water resources, strengthening community-driven decision-making, and safeguarding the future of rural communities like mine in Essex County. Thank you for your consideration and for your service to the Commonwealth. Respectfully, Meredith Trible A Concerned Citizen Essex County, Virginia

I am in strong support of this bill that would require data centers to disclose water usage and include average daily use, maximum daily use, and total maximum annual use. As well as water use to be disclosed at the time of site plan. It is within all of our best interests for this data to be completely transparent to community members that will be affected by data center infrastructure. Thank you.

I support HB496 on behalf of my constituents whose access to water is at risk due to the plans of a massive data center that would use between 2 million to 8 million gallons of water today from our regional water authority. One locality in the regional water authority signed a contract impacting the entire region's water supply without notice to the other localities. This is unacceptable especially in the middle of a long drought resulting in low levels of our water retention supply. It's imperative that HB496 passes to protect our water supply from outdated data center construction that results in wasteful water usage. There must be public notice and discussion. Please vote for HB496. Sincerely, Freeda Cathcart District Director on the BRSWCD representing Roanoke City

Please vote for transparency on the impact that data centers have on our water supply. We are in a drought warning and our aquifers are being depleted. This bill would bring transparency to the impact these facilities have.

Dear delegates, I urge you to pass this bill to slow the unrestrained development of data centers in Virginia. We’re at a crossroads where we can choose to continue drawing unlimited resources from our public utilities and natural resources (like water), or we can put sensible and sustainable guard rails on developments like Google’s hyperscale data center proposed near my home in Botetourt County. I just inherited my family’s 76 acres of pristine Appalachian Mountain-side there, and I’d like to someday build my forever home there. In my dreams, I have plenty of well water to draw from the aquifers below the land. I fear that if un restrained data centers, taking a city’s worth of water per day, I’ll have no water with which to raise my family.

I fully support this bill. I speak for the large organization of HOA’s in PWC, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Fauquier counties supporting better transparency and standards around water use. The VA DEQ recent report said half of Virginia is under drought conditions. We need this bill Roger Yackel Gainesville

I'm writing to show my support for this bill, which would grant more transparency to Virginians who are currently facing new data center development projects. As cost of living and inflation continues to rise, we deserve to know to what degree data centers would strain our water resources, in order to make more informed public opinions on whether these centers are a net benefit or detriment to our communities. It's to everyone's detriment when that information is not public knowledge, as it fuels speculation and mistrust. And if a company is trying to withhold that information, because of how detrimental these data centers would be to our water supply and the price increases we would ultimately pay towards it, then that is all the more reason that the information should be public so that a more informed public dialogue can be held.

Dear State Representatives: Advancing this is critical for local transparency. We in Botetourt County are in the process of opposing a Google Data center that is shrouded in NDA's for the local voters. Our Board of Supervisors has signed NDAs that specifically cloak the amount of water used on a daily basis by this data center. Please help us before it too late. Thank you Jim Malue

Hi, I'm reaching out as a member of the Southwest Virginia Data Center Transparency Alliance group. I'd like to encourage your support of HB496 to require data centers to publicly share information about each center's projected and actual water usage—both average and maximum for daily and yearly amounts. Because our sources of fresh water are limited and necessary for human life, I believe regulating these centers is of utmost importance. Additionally, there are multiple methods of cooling water in these centers that are sustainable and more environmentally friendly. I encourage our representatives to consider proposing a new bill: One that requires data centers to explore all methods of cooling, then publicly share these findings. Ultimately, most data centers do not use renewable resources due to the higher cost. If we, as Virginians, are allowing these centers to become fixtures in our communities—cutting down trees, producing irritating humming sounds at all hours of the day, and consuming significant amounts of power from our grids—our lawmakers have every right to require the centers to foot the bill. I live right on the county lines of Roanoke and Botetourt, and here, Google is our main concern. Google absolutely has the funding and resources to pay its share of the electric usage, any necessary updates to the county's electrical grid to support the center, and MOST importantly, the additional cost to use a renewable cooling method that will not put our entire community at risk of drought. I invite you to consider that while the county will make money from this deal, we can still welcome the data center if it's already decided—but it's up to you as our representatives to ensure that me, you, our neighbors, and all of our children have access to clean water and reasonable energy rates for generations to come. Thank you so much for your time. This issue affects us all, both those profiting from it and those who will be paying more for it. Please consider our community as a whole and help us maintain our fresh water.

I support HB496. We need regulations to ensure that data centers are not sited where they make excessive demands on water. Recent reports about nondisclosure agreements keeping the public in the dark about this critical information are frankly appalling. Please vote for HB496.