Millions of gallons of water and the chemicals needed for cooling data centers are a growing concern for communities across the United States.
While artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes the way America does business, the number of data centers being built to meet its expanding computational demands has kicked off a construction boom.
Millions of gallons of water are needed for cooling these new data centers, a demand that has risen in lockstep with the expansion of AI support facilities.
The amount of water needed to power the data center building bonanza has triggered concerns about water supplies and groundwater safety in arid and water-stressed cities, where many of the complexes are being built.
Sergio Toro, CEO of market intelligence group Aterio, shared research with The Epoch Times that showed there are 1,827 active data centers in the United States, with another 1,726 announced and 419 currently under construction.
Hundreds of the new centers are being planned or built in areas suffering from water scarcity or prolonged drought, prompting alarm from those working in sustainable urban development and environmentalism.
Based on the findings Toro shared, 1,082 data centers are being planned or built across 10 states that are experiencing some degree of water stress.
In states grappling with acute water stress, such as Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Utah, California, and Colorado, 437 data centers are planned or are currently under construction.
The amount of water used in data centers depends on the facility type, which generally fall under one of two categories.
Hyperscale data centers are large facilities used by cloud service providers and internet companies, demanding huge amounts of electricity and sometimes spanning millions of square feet.
Non-hyperscale data centers—also known as co-location data centers—are facilities where equipment, space, and bandwidth are rented to either wholesale or retail customers.
On average, non-hyperscale facilities use roughly 6.57 million gallons of water per year. By comparison, hyperscale centers—the kind required to power AI—use an estimated 200 million gallons per year.
However, it’s not just the volume of water that’s causing concern, but also the risk of contamination from cooling system additives leaching into groundwater, Steve Rosas, president and project director at Omega Environmental Services, told The Epoch Times.
