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Resident urges explicit groundwater protections in Technology Overlay District
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Summary
During citizen comment, Reverend Lisa Sykes asked the commission to require that all water and reused water in the proposed Technology Overlay District come from the county public water system, to ban new industrial groundwater extraction (including for data centers), and to define 'reuse' so groundwater pumping cannot be repurposed; commissioners acknowledged her remarks.
Reverend Lisa Sykes, a Goochland County resident, urged the Planning Commission on Nov. 20 to tighten language in the draft Technology Overlay District (TOD) ordinance so it cannot be used to permit new groundwater withdrawals for industrial uses.
Sykes said the current draft requires uses in the TOD to connect to public water and sewer and allows some on‑site reuse and treatment, but she warned the text could be interpreted to allow industry to pump groundwater in addition to public water. "Knowing 85% of the county is on well water makes me concerned that this language doesn't actually preclude future groundwater withdrawals," Sykes said. She recommended three changes: require that all water and all reused water originate from the county's public water system; explicitly prohibit new wells or groundwater extraction for industrial processes or cooling within the TOD; and define "reuse" to mean water that was originally purchased from the public system, not groundwater pumped from an aquifer.
Sykes also argued that regulating water usage by plan of development is insufficient and said the ordinance should include standards for data centers that protect the county's aquifer while allowing economic development. Commissioners thanked Sykes for her comments; the exchange occurred during the citizen comment period and no immediate staff commitment to reword the TOD language appears on the record.
Next steps: Sykes' recommendations were recorded in the meeting's public comment record for consideration as the TOD language advances through the planning process.
