Our hero today is the humble household commode.
How the lowly, hard-working toilet factors into a contentious debate in the Roanoke Valley about a Google data center — or, for that matter, data centers anywhere — is a tale that goes back to the early 1990s, well before Google was even founded.
(Disclosure: We have received a grant from the Google News Initiative to support our expansion in the New River Valley, but donors have no say in news decisions; see our policy.)
I’ll tell that story, but let’s fast forward to the present day, or at least a day about a month ago. With a small band of anti-Google protestors outside with signs that said “Save Our Water,” Botetourt County Administrator Gary Larrowe told the Botetourt Business Summit that the Roanoke Valley uses less water today than it did 20 years ago.
This seemed a rather implausible assertion, so I’ve spent the last month researching it (well, not the whole month, we did have that special election). The short version: It’s true.
The Western Virginia Water Authority had 26.6% more customers in 2025 than it did in 2005 but uses 10.8% less water.
The specific number: Back then, the authority had 55,511 customers; now it has 70,280.
Back then, the authority averaged 22,918,328 gallons of water per day; in 2025, the figure was 20,437,898 gallons of water per day.
The Google data center headed for the Greenfield Business Park in Botetourt County has “reserved” up to 2 million per day. That doesn’t necessarily mean it will use all that, but the company wants to make sure it’s available.
That amount of water usage would make Google the authority’s largest customer, by far. Google at its max would use nearly eight times as much water as the authority’s biggest customer now, the Coca-Cola plant in Roanoke that drinks in 260,000 gallons of water per day. And yet, even if Google appeared today and used that 2 million gallons every day, the water authority would still be treating less water than it did 20 years ago. Water usage is down so dramatically that we could add two Google projects and still be barely ahead of the amount of water the valley used in 2006, the year the valley hit its maximum water usage of 23,358,054 gallons per day.
Daily water use in the Roanoke Valley. Data source: Western Virginia Water Authority.
That 20,437,898 million gallons of water per day that the authority treated in 2025 is also something of an anomaly. From 2019 to 2024, the authority’s daily water usage was consistently under 19 million gallons per day — the daily average for those six years was 18,860,316. The 20,437,898 gallons used in 2025 was the highest figure since 2011. The reasons why water usage went up so much are attributed to several factors, according to Sarah Baumgardner, the spokesperson for the authority. The authority acquired some small water systems that, in some cases, serve apartments, so “one customer” there translates into an entire apartment complex using water. However, the biggest factor may be simple maintenance. “We have shifted some production to Carvins Cove as we worked to make improvements to the Spring Hollow Facility,” she said by email. “Water from Carvins Cove is distributed through older pipes that can be more prone to leakage and breaks.” We’ll come back to this point.
For now, let’s deal with the question you likely have, because I had it, too: How is it possible for water usage to be going down when the number of customers is going up?
This is where our friend the toilet comes in — and a law that President George H.W. Bush signed in 1992, the Energy Policy Act of 1992. That law was an early attempt to promote renewable energy and lessen American dependence on oil. At least that’s what got attention at the time. However, deep in its 357 pages are “energy conservation requirements for certain lamps and plumbing products.”
The discreetly named “plumbing products” of interest to us are toilets, because they generally use more water than anything else in a house. When the Energy Policy Act was passed, toilets often used 3.5 to 7 gallons of water per flush. Some even used more than 8 gallons.
The Energy Policy Act required the development of toilets that use just 1.6 gallons per flush.
That seemed radical then. If the phrase “green new deal” had existed then, it would have been used by critics. And yet today, toilets use even less than that. The current average, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is 1.28 gallons per flush.
Toilets aren’t the only “plumbing products” whose water usage has been reduced. In the 1980s, showerheads often operated at 4 to 7 gallons per minute. Modern units use 2 gallons per minute or less.
Washing machines have been cut from 45 to 55 gallons per load down to about 20 to 25 gallons per load.
The bottom line: We’re using a lot less water than we used to.
This isn’t just in the Roanoke Valley; it’s across the country. The EPA says the daily per-capita water usage in the U.S. is 82 gallons, a figure based on a report that’s now a decade old and likely outdated by even more technological improvements. That figure is still down from 112 gallons in 1980. The Water Footprint Calculator cites a 2022 estimate of 60 gallons per day. The Clean Water Center estimates 64 gallons per day.
In many places, that means water usage is going down even as the population goes up. The Western Virginia Water Authority wasn’t alone in that respect.
Lynchburg only had data going back to 2007, but from 2007 to 2025, the Hill City’s water usage was down 25.1%, even as the number of customers was up 8.8%.
Blacksburg, which did have data going back to 2005, showed water usage has fallen 16.8%. (Blacksburg notes that these figures don’t include Virginia Tech; the town also didn’t have the number of customers from 20 years ago; that data didn’t start until a few years later, but once again, we see the same trend of customers rising, water usage dropping.)
Richmond is down 6.3%.
According to data from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, the places where water usage has gone up over the past two decades are the ones with sharp population increases, most notably in Northern Virginia.
The localities I talked with all cited the same two things: technological improvements (those toilets) and leaky pipes being replaced.
Baumgardner, with the Western Virginia Water Authority, said the industry goal is to replace or rehabilitate 1% of the system’s pipes every year. Last year, the authority replaced about 10.5 miles of pipes. This year, it expects to do the same. That’s a lot of pipes without leaks — and that figure is still slightly under the industry standard (she says the authority replaced 0.81% of its water system pipes last year).
The two forces driving water usage down are likely to continue — more leaky pipes will get fixed or replaced, and technology is likely to make plumbing fixtures even more water-efficient. The Niagara Conservation Corporation (which, despite the name, is based in Texas) says, “We’re seeing ultra-high-efficiency toilets that use as little as 0.8 gallons per flush without sacrificing performance.”
That means per-capita water usage in the Roanoke Valley (and elsewhere) will probably continue to decrease — meaning that even the addition of a thirsty, water-guzzling data center will still leave the region using less water than it did two decades ago.
Google has said that someday, if the Botetourt project expands, it might need a possible 8 million gallons a day. At that point, based on current usage, the Roanoke Valley would need an additional water source, which Google has committed to partially pay for. However, the water authority says it’s under no legal obligation to supply Google with anything beyond the 2 million gallons a day it’s currently reserved.
How likely is it that water usage will stay constant? Nationally, American per-capita water usage has fallen by up to 46.4% since 1980; how much more will it fall in the coming years? We really have no idea, but it’s likely to fall some, due to technology and new pipes.
When the National Energy Policy Act of 1992 was passed, it was difficult to foresee the drop in water usage that we’ve had; how well can we predict water usage three decades hence? The here-and-now issue is up to 2 million gallons of water per day for Google. That’s a lot by Roanoke Valley standards, but must also be viewed in the context that Google wouldn’t drain Carvins Cove dry; it would return the valley’s water usage to what it was 15 years ago, and still leave the valley using less water than it did 20 years ago.
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