Sedges Creek

Sedges Creek is an ephemeral stream in Louisa County, Virginia, flowing into Lake Anna. As an ephemeral waterway, it carries water only during and immediately after rainfall events, running dry for extended periods in drier seasons. Its low and intermittent flow gives it limited dilution capacity: pollutants or thermally elevated water discharged into an ephemeral stream reach the receiving body — Lake Anna — without the buffering a perennial stream provides.

Sedges Creek became a regulatory focus in 2026 when Amazon applied to Virginia DEQ for a VPDES permit to discharge up to 280,000 gallons a day of non-contact cooling water into the stream from a proposed 150-acre data-centre campus in Louisa County. The pretreated water contains sulphuric acid, sodium hydroxide, and other treatment chemicals at concentrations permitted under the VPDES template. Virginia DEQ scheduled a public hearing on 9 June 2026. The stream's ephemeral character is central to environmental objections: concentration spikes from the discharge that would be diluted harmlessly in a perennial stream can reach Lake Anna intact .