The questions residents ask most. For each, we separate what is established on the record from what is still contested.
Your water
Big data centers can use a lot of water for cooling, and these campuses are expanding in the same years the county is racing to add a new water source. [source]
Established The county's total water capacity is 110.5 million gallons a day, and it is building a $426 million Appomattox River plant targeted for 2033. Google has declined to say how much water any of its three campuses will use. The county issued a voluntary conservation request on July 1, 2026 amid drought.
Contested Whether the new plant is needed because of data centers (versus normal growth), and who ultimately pays for that infrastructure, has not been answered on the record. Residents say the secrecy makes the real impact impossible to judge.
Your electric bill
As data centers multiply, the cost of new power plants and transmission lines is expected to push up electricity bills for everyone, not just the data centers. [source]
Established Virginia's own watchdog, JLARC, projected a typical Dominion home could pay $14 to $37 more a month by 2040, driven substantially by data-center growth. Regulators approved a $1.47 billion Chesterfield gas plant explicitly to serve that demand, a residential rate increase starting Jan. 1, 2026, and a separate rate class meant to make large users pay their own way.
Contested Whether ordinary ratepayers are fully shielded from those costs is disputed. Advocacy groups say regulators did not assign the full cost to data centers; the utility and regulators disagree.
Your taxes
Google's three sites get a 30-year freeze on the county's data-center equipment tax rate, on top of Virginia's statewide sales-tax break. [source]
Established The 24-cents-per-$100 rate, frozen for 30 years, is in county-approved agreements for all three sites. Statewide, companies claimed about $3.2 billion in data-center sales-tax breaks across 2024 and 2025. The 2026 state budget kept the exemption and added a new energy fee of about $600 million a year.
Contested Critics call the county's rate an unusually low hidden subsidy; the county says the deals still add more than $4.2 million a year in revenue per $1 billion invested and diversify a tax base that is roughly 80% residential. Both figures are real; which one matters more is a judgment call.
Transparency and the NDAs
The EDA negotiated with Google under nondisclosure agreements, so residents, and even some officials, did not know Google was behind the projects until August 2025. [source]
Established The county's own announcement confirms Google's ownership was 'shielded from the public under a nondisclosure agreement with the Chesterfield Economic Development Authority' until Aug. 27, 2025. In June 2025, supervisors publicly voiced regret that an NDA kept them from sharing details before a vote.
Contested Whether that secrecy was excessive or standard practice to win investment is debated. Officials defend it as necessary to compete; residents and researchers say it blocked meaningful public input before deals were final.
