Board approves water and wastewater agreement with Powerhouse 95; officials stress reuse protections

The Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors on July meeting night approved the county's water and wastewater infrastructure agreement with Powerhouse 95 LLC, with a 6-0 vote. The item had been pulled from the consent agenda so supervisors could hear staff explain the safeguards built into the agreement.

County Administrator Ed Petrovich told the board the agreement and related water services arrangements are intended to rely on treated reuse water rather than potable (drinking) water for industrial cooling, including data centers. He said the county maintains potable treatment plants at Nye Reservoir and the Rappahannock River and that reuse water comes from wastewater treatment plants such as the FMC and Massaponax facilities. "When we talk about data centers, we are talking about reuse water. We're not talking about permanent cooling water using potable or drinking water," Petrovich said.

Supervisor Lori Hayes, who pulled the item for discussion, told residents that although some commercial flow figures in the packet were redacted, county staff had vetted the agreement. "Rest assured . . . it has been fully vetted by county staff," Hayes said. Petrovich added that the county and developers have worked for several years on allocation provisions so one data center does not hoard future capacity. He said the water services agreement includes a use threshold: if Powerhouse does not use 60% of its allocated capacity it may lose part of that allocation so it can be preserved for other users.

The board vote to approve the purchase and agreement was recorded as "6 yes; motion passes." The motion was made by Supervisor Hayes; a second was not recorded on the transcript.

The transcript discussion referenced existing county ordinances that prohibit using potable drinking water for permanent data center cooling; Petrovich said Spotsylvania is among the localities that have adopted such measures. County staff characterized the agreement as imposing no additional cost burden on the county and said it would advance the county's emerging reuse system for industrial customers.

The board action approved the agreement as presented; the agreement document itself contains redacted commercial flow information that staff said was proprietary to the developer.

The board did not adopt any immediate amendments to the agreement at the meeting. Staff said they will continue to administer allocations and monitor use under the terms of the water services agreement.