This petition is for all customers of the Western Virginia Water Authority throughout the Roanoke Region, which includes residents and businesses in the City of Roanoke, the Counties of Roanoke, Franklin and Botetourt and the Towns of Boones Mill, Iron Gate and Vinton.  Sanitary wastewater service is provided for the greater Roanoke Valley.  Through a contractual agreement, water and wastewater service is provided in the Town of Fincastle.

As customers of the Western Virginia Water Authority and residents of the greater Roanoke Valley, we are deeply concerned about the well-being of our community due to Google's proposed Project Raspberry in Botetourt County, which is being allowed to use up to 2 million gallons of water a day on Day 1, and increasing up to 8 million gallons of water a day on Day N (or full build out of the 3 data center campus). In addition to Project Raspberry, Franklin County residents uncovered plans for Project Flash (a Crusoe data center planned for Summit View Technology Park), and there could easily be more planned in the near-future. We urge all water authority customers to sign this petition calling for an immediate halt to all development, and construction activities related to supplying data centers with water. It has been well documented in localities across the Commonwealth of Virginia, as well as the entire country, how these massive developments can threaten our precious water resources, which are vital for our health, agriculture, and natural ecosystems.

Virginia has almost 700 data centers constructed or currently proposed – far surpassing every other country in the world. These hyperscale projects are moving into our region at an exponential rate against the backdrop of a global drought and ever-present concerns over serious health risks, mental well-being, noise, air, and water pollution, rising electricity costs, and other threats to communities across the country. A DEQ report, Groundwater Supply East of Interstate 95, was released in July 2026 and examines the state’s eastern region groundwater supply and the resource-hungry industry’s possible impact on it, finding declines are likely in a critical aquifer due to population growth and industrial use and urging stricter regulations.

Our current approach to this industry is unsustainable. Something must be done now to protect the future of our water. 

We are calling for the Western Virginia Water Authority:

• to issue a full and immediate pause of any and all data center planning, development, or construction until the risks can be fully investigated through a cumulative impact assessment by local independent authorities, environmental experts, and community leaders to identify the potential impacts on our water resources and the total burden of this water-intense industry to our regional community. 
• to ensure that mitigation measures, additional regulations, and oversight are being enforced on data center developers through new legal contracts and agreements
• to issue full, factual, and transparent information to the community based on the above investigation
• and to allow customers to have a say in large scale water use of commercial customers through a public hearing, due to the Western Virginia Water Authority being a public service authority

We are calling on the leaders of our regional localities to instruct the WVWA board representatives for their locality to follow through with the above actions. This includes:

• Roanoke City Council and Mayor Cobb to instruct their three board members: Harvey Brookins Jr, Michael Loveman, and Valmarie Turner.
• Roanoke County Board of Supervisors to instruct their three board members: Richard Caywood, Don Halliwill, Randall Hancock.
• Botetourt County Board of Supervisors to instruct their single board member Hunter Young. 
• Franklin County Board of Supervisors to instruct their single board member Gary Robertson.

Please join us in demanding that our government officials and public water authority protect the Greater Roanoke Valley by taking the steps above.