Week in review: Amazon drops VA water permit, GA NDA suit

Welcome back to the GridWatch AI Week in Review — our Sunday roundup of the most important data center stories from the past seven days, what they mean for communities, and what you can learn from each one.

1. Amazon drops a groundwater permit for its 869-acre Virginia campus, two days after the local paper asked about it

What happened: Amazon Web Services withdrew its application to renew a permit allowing up to 6.4 million gallons a year of groundwater withdrawals from the Potomac aquifer for its Birchwood Tech Campus, a planned data-center campus on 869 acres in King George County, Virginia, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The withdrawal came two days after the paper reported on the permit, which Virginia's Department of Environmental Quality had disclosed through a routine public notice. The county's own water utility and state Sen. Richard Stuart had already objected, warning that groundwater levels nearby were already depleted; Stuart called granting the permit "indefensible" in the Fredericksburg Free Press. Amazon told reporters it would "seek alternate water sources as advised by VDEQ and Virginia regulation."

Why it matters: The permit would not have supplied cooling water — Amazon says the campus will use closed-loop or air-based cooling — but groundwater for employee use, landscaping and other site needs. That distinction matters because it shows the water fight moving past cooling water, the number most communities ask about first, to every other draw a campus this size puts on a local aquifer.

What to learn — a public notice is the opening, not the end, of a water fight: Virginia's DEQ, like most state environmental agencies, is required to publish a public notice before approving a groundwater withdrawal permit, with a comment period before any decision. That notice is exactly what let King George's water utility and Sen. Stuart get on record before a permit was ever granted. Two things to do before your own county's aquifer is on the line:

Ask your county's public works or water utility department whether it tracks pending withdrawal permits near local wellfields — the utility often has more technical standing to object than an individual resident.
Search your state environmental agency's public-notice log directly rather than waiting for a news story; by the time a story runs, the comment period may already be closing. See our breakdown of how these water numbers actually add up in The Hidden Water Cost of Your AI Prompt.

Sources: Virginia Mercury, Aug 26; Maryland Matters, Aug 30; Fredericksburg Free Press, Aug 21; Potomac Local, Sep 4

2. A developer drops its legal fight against Montgomery County's moratorium — because a tougher one already replaced it

What happened: Atmosphere Data Centers withdrew its legal appeal of a six-month data center permitting pause County Executive Marc Elrich ordered in June, according to Bethesda Magazine and WTOP. The appeal became moot on July 28, when the Montgomery County Council voted unanimously to pass its own, stronger 18-month moratorium — which superseded Elrich's executive order outright. Atmosphere had proposed a 360-megawatt, five-building campus at the former Dickerson power plant site; the company says it is still evaluating its options for the project.

Why it matters: This is a case study in a distinction that matters anywhere a county executive and a county council can both act: an executive order is one official's decision and can be reversed by the next official, or superseded the moment the legislature acts on the same subject. A council ordinance is a legislative act, harder to undo, and — as this case shows — strong enough to make a legal challenge to the weaker order pointless before it was ever decided.

What to learn — know which body actually controls the pause you're citing: If your county has both a moratorium-by-executive-order and a council considering its own ordinance, the executive order is the more fragile one. Push for the council vote, not just the order, because that is the version a developer's lawyers will actually have to litigate around. Montgomery County's tracker row and the underlying ordinance are on our moratorium tracker and its community page.

Sources: Bethesda Magazine, Aug 28; WTOP, Aug 28; The Baltimore Banner, Jul 28; Data Center Dynamics, Jul 16

3. Next door, Baltimore County is moving the opposite direction — toward a longer pause, not a shorter one

What happened: Baltimore County's Planning Board held a public hearing September 3 on a 51-page draft report recommending new data center rules — limiting them to industrial zones, barring them from agricultural land, and requiring setbacks from residential property — ahead of a September 17 board vote on the report, per The Baltimore Banner. Separately, five of the county council's seven members back extending the county's existing moratorium, which is due to expire no later than January 1, 2027, through 2027; County Executive Kathy Klausmeier supports the extension as well, and the council vote is expected September 21, according to WYPR. At the hearing itself, residents spoke overwhelmingly against large data centers, per CBS News Baltimore.

Why it matters: Baltimore County shows what a moratorium is actually for, used correctly: not a permanent ban, but time bought to write specific, defensible rules — a zoning-only restriction, an agricultural-land carve-out, a residential setback — before the pause lapses and applications resume under whatever standard existed before.

What to learn — an extension vote is not a rubber stamp; show up for the report, not just the vote: The draft rules a planning board produces during a moratorium usually become the actual standard once the pause ends, regardless of whether the council also extends it. If your county is in a moratorium, find out when its planning board's report becomes public — often weeks before the final council vote — and comment on the rules themselves, not just on whether to extend the clock. Baltimore County's moratorium and its January 2027 expiration are recorded on our moratorium tracker and community page.

Sources: The Baltimore Banner, Sep 1; WYPR, Sep 1; CBS News Baltimore, Sep 4; citybiz, Aug 31

4. West Virginia certifies a second $12 billion data center in one county — under a law that skips local review entirely

What happened: Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced that Starwood Digital Ventures received the state's "high-impact data center" certification for a $12 billion, roughly 2.16-gigawatt project called Project Tamarack in West Columbia, Mason County — the sixth large-scale data center now confirmed in West Virginia, and the second certified in Mason County alone, according to West Virginia Public Broadcasting and WV MetroNews. The state says Starwood will fund the project's own infrastructure costs rather than pass them to ratepayers, and the company says it will use closed-loop cooling to limit water use. Residents reacted with what one told WSAZ was a "total shocker."

Why it matters: West Virginia's certification program, created under 2025's H.B. 2014, lets the state Department of Commerce certify a "high-impact data center" within 14 days once a developer shows the project will have a significant economic impact and help attract at least two other businesses to the state — a state-level approval track that does not run through the county's own zoning or public-hearing process. West Virginia Watch reported in February that the enabling legislation passed the House without the local-control or water-protection provisions some lawmakers sought.

What to learn — a state "certification" is not the same thing as a local permit, and residents can lose the hearing they assumed they'd get: Before assuming a data center project in your state will go through your county's normal zoning process, ask whether your state has a fast-track certification or siting law like West Virginia's, and if so, what it does and does not require locally. Mason County's earlier data-center buyout program for neighboring homeowners — the first of its kind, profiled in our own reporting — is the kind of local leverage that still exists even when the zoning fight doesn't: see The Playbook Communities Are Already Using.

Sources: West Virginia Public Broadcasting, Sep 4; WV MetroNews, Sep 3; WSAZ, Sep 4; Herald-Dispatch, Sep 3

5. Georgia residents sue Effingham County, alleging officials signed a secret NDA with OpenAI and skipped a required hearing

What happened: Three Effingham County residents filed suit in Effingham County Superior Court alleging the county commission changed its zoning ordinance to clear the way for OpenAI's planned "Project Camellia" data center without holding the two public hearings — one before the planning board, one before the commission — that state law and the county's own rules require, according to The Current and Georgia Public Broadcasting. The suit also cites a non-disclosure agreement County Manager Tim Callanan signed with OpenAI that, the plaintiffs say, barred him from telling residents about the project — the same site, near Rincon, where Georgia's Public Service Commission approved a roughly $20 billion power contract just last week and Sen. Raphael Warnock called for a statewide moratorium (see our coverage). The plaintiffs are asking a judge to declare the zoning change invalid.

Why it matters: This is a different legal tool than a moratorium lawsuit — it doesn't argue the zoning decision was wrong on the merits, it argues the county broke its own procedural rules to reach that decision. If a court agrees, the zoning change itself could be thrown out regardless of what anyone thinks of the project.

What to learn — a skipped hearing is its own, separate claim: Most states require a specific number of public hearings, at specific bodies, before certain zoning changes take effect, and those requirements exist independent of whether the ultimate decision was reasonable. If your county approved a rezoning tied to a data center, check whether it actually held every hearing your state's zoning-enabling statute requires — county commission minutes and agendas are public record, and a missed hearing is often easier to prove than a broader "the process was unfair" argument. NDAs signed by public employees are a separate flag: ask your county attorney directly whether any official signed one related to a pending project.

Sources: The Current, Sep 3; Georgia Public Broadcasting, Sep 3; WSAV-TV, Sep 3; Effingham Herald, Sep 3

6. A South Carolina town's planning commission recommends a moratorium — even though no large data center has actually applied yet

What happened: Mount Pleasant's Planning Commission voted August 31 to recommend a 120-day moratorium on new data centers to the full town council, which takes it up September 8, according to Live 5 News and The Post and Courier. Mayor Will Haynie told the paper there is "no immediate rush" — no developer has yet proposed a large-scale data center east of the Cooper River — but the pause is meant to give staff time to write a clearer definition of what counts as a "data center" before one is proposed, so that small business server rooms aren't swept up by rules meant for hyperscale campuses.

Why it matters: Most moratoriums in this tracker respond to a specific project already in the pipeline. Mount Pleasant's is preemptive — written before any application exists, specifically so the definition and the rules are settled before a developer, not after.

What to learn — a moratorium written before a project arrives is easier to defend in court than one written in response to one: Courts have been more skeptical of moratoriums that look like they were written to stop a single, named, already-filed project — that pattern is exactly what's being litigated in a Michigan lawsuit we covered two weeks ago. A pause adopted for a stated planning purpose, before any specific application exists, is the more legally durable version of the same tool. If your town hasn't had a data center proposal yet, this is the argument for asking it to act now rather than waiting for one.

Sources: Live 5 News, Aug 31; The Post and Courier, Aug 31; ABC News 4, Aug 31; WCBD News 2, Aug 31

7. Data centers become a Texas governor's race issue as a Democratic candidate calls for a special legislative session

What happened: Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa held a campaign stop outside the El Paso County Courthouse on August 31 calling on Gov. Greg Abbott to convene a special legislative session on data centers, according to El Paso Matters and KVIA. Hinojosa said that, if elected, she would seek to ban non-disclosure agreements between developers and local officials, prohibit local tax subsidies for data centers, require union labor, and void water contracts if local supplies face shortages. The stop came as Meta builds a $14 billion data center campus in El Paso.

Why it matters: A campaign promise is not a policy, and a special session requires the governor to call one — Hinojosa cannot do that unless she wins. What it signals is that data centers, water and electricity costs have moved from a local zoning fight into a statewide campaign issue that a candidate expects to help, not hurt, a run for governor.

What to learn — track the platform, not just the press conference: A candidate's data-center platform is a useful benchmark for what "good" policy could look like in your state, but it is not enforceable until it becomes a bill that passes and is signed. If a candidate in your state makes a promise like this, the concrete next step to watch is whether a sitting legislator introduces the actual bill — Texas's 2027 legislative session, not the campaign trail, is where any of this would actually happen. Track who represents you and what they've said on the record with our officials scorecard.

Sources: El Paso Matters, Aug 31; KVIA, Aug 31; KTSM, Aug 31; CBS Austin, Aug 31

What to watch next week

Baltimore County, MD — whether the Planning Board's September 17 vote on its draft rules, and the council's September 21 extension vote, land as expected
Mount Pleasant, SC — whether the full town council adopts the 120-day moratorium its Planning Commission recommended
Effingham County, GA — the county's response to the residents' lawsuit over the zoning ordinance and the OpenAI non-disclosure agreement
King George County, VA — whether Amazon returns with an alternate water source for the Birchwood campus, and what that source turns out to be
Mason County, WV — whether Starwood's Project Tamarack files for any local permits now that it holds state certification

Every Sunday we cover the week's most important data center stories, explain the underlying concepts, and point you to the tools you need. Know a story we should cover? Reach out at hello@aigridwatch.com or sign up for the newsletter below.