Virginia Water Resources Research Center

Weekly Virginia Water Announcements are here! 💧 Read about swimming advisories, beach data, harmful algal blooms, and more! Brought to you by the Va Water Monitoring Council 🌎 https://bit.ly/3QVx8fS

Congrats to Almudena Sanz Gutiérrez, our 2026–2027 William R. Walker Graduate Research Fellow! 🎉 A PhD student studying disparities in safe drinking water access, Almudena brings experience in epidemiology and a vision to bridge public health, engineering, and water systems 🌊 https://bit.ly/4xGW7nF

💧 Virginia Water Announcements This Week! Get certified with Save Our Streams, learn about streambank repair, and more! 🌱Brought to you by the Va Water Monitoring Council https://bit.ly/49dBi8X

This week’s Virginia Water Announcements are out! 💧🌿 Learn about the James River Watch, World Fish Migration Day, and more! 🐟🌎 Always something to learn or get involved in! Brought to you by the Virginia Water Monitoring Council. https://bit.ly/4ui4Ytl

Want to learn more about harmful algal blooms (HABs) around Smith Mountain Lake? Check out our SML Webtool and find out more at

Data and Model Integration to Assess Harmful Algal Blooms in Smith Mountain Lake – Virginia Water Resources Research Center The 2024 Virginia General Assembly requested a study to assess harmful algal blooms (HABs) in Smith Mountain Lake (SML), a reservoir created by damming the Roanoke River. Harmful algal blooms have algae and cyanobacteria that produce toxins that may adversely affect human health through consumption....

⚡🚰 AI data centers don’t just use water; they shift water use elsewhere.

Virginia Tech researcher Landon Marston explains that up to 90% of a data center’s water footprint can come from offsite power generation, rather than cooling. Saving water on-site can lead to increased water use upstream for electricity production.

The key takeaway is that energy and water planning must be integrated, particularly in water-stressed regions experiencing rapid data center growth.

There's a power/water trade-off in data center resource allocation Landon Marston, who studies sustainable water resources management, is in the middle of the growing challenge of power and water resource allocation for data centers.

🌊 Big news! Our new M.S. in Water Resources at Virginia Tech has been approved—the first of its kind in Virginia. The program integrates environmental & social sciences to tackle real-world water challenges💧 More details coming soon—stay tuned! https://bit.ly/416HxH6

You may be wondering what’s the latest about the sewage spill in the Potomac River – read more here, including information about the DC Dept of Energy & Environment’s newly launched water monitoring dashboard that presents bacteria data! https://bit.ly/4tcGIIG

On March 26, 2026, Dr. Kevin McGuire, Director of the Virginia Water Resources Research Center at Virginia Tech, testified before the House Natural Resources Committee on the authorization of the Water Resources Research Act (WRRA) program! Read more at https://bit.ly/47sF5hQ