An aerial view of the Rappahannock River, as seen from just north of Fredericksburg. (file photo)The Rappahannock Tribe has filed a challenge to Caroline County’s water withdrawal permit that the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) approved in November. In November 2024, county officials removed the need for “industrial cooling” from its permit and lowered the request to 9 million gallons. “I don’t know the minutia of what would throw it back to the DEQ,” Forehand said. But the Tribe believes the county did not consider alternative options, such as purchasing finished water from other jurisdictions, and that the county and DEQ failed to elaborate on why alternatives were not pursued.