Spanberger administration withheld mandated Potomac Aquifer study for six months until AP's records request forced release

On July 23, 2026, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger's office provided The Associated Press with a Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) study on the Potomac Aquifer that had been due under a March 2024 law by January 1, 2026, releasing it only after AP filed a public-records request. The study found that groundwater withdrawals in the aquifer, which underlies eastern Virginia's coastal plain, already exceed what rainfall replenishes, and concluded the region cannot support any new large industrial water user — including water-cooled data centers — without risking the water supply.

The initial delay began under outgoing Gov. Glenn Youngkin, whose administration missed the January 1 statutory deadline. Spanberger, who took office in mid-January 2026, retained Youngkin's DEQ director, Mike Rollband, and the report remained unreleased through her first six-plus months in office. A Spanberger spokesperson attributed the delay to "a backlog of outstanding items from the previous governor's administration"; Rollband did not comment publicly on the delay.

Because the report stayed withheld, the General Assembly acted this year on data-center water-use legislation without its findings. Lawmakers ultimately passed a bill requiring after-the-fact reporting on data-center water use, but a provision that would have required upfront water-use disclosure as part of the permitting process did not survive to the final bill.

Updates

2026-07-30 — Senators requested special session over report's findings [3]

State Sens. Russet Perry (D-Loudoun) and Richard Stuart (R-King George) sent Gov. Spanberger a letter asking her to convene a special legislative session to consider new groundwater protections, writing that "had the General Assembly reviewed these findings when the law required, it is safe to say the outcome of several legislative and budget decisions would have been different."