More than electricity: Data centers' water use scrutinized

Data centers' vast amount of energy consumption in central Ohio was at the heart of a recent high-profile decision by state regulatory officials.

Yet, those multi-billion-dollar facilities are also placing a strain on water infrastructure and in turn sparking concerns from environmental advocates and state lawmakers alike.

Just as data centers need electricity, the facilities also require millions of gallons of water daily to cool the hot air produced by those systems. And while the state is better positioned than hotter and more arid climates to mitigate water overuse, groups such as the Ohio Environmental Council urge responsible use of that limited resource.

"Ohio has the fourth highest number of data centers in the nation, and some of our largest-scale developments can gobble up as much water in a year as tens of thousands of people," said Carol Kaufman, the group's CEO. "The Central Ohio region is sinking due to groundwater subsidence, a problem that will become much more serious in the next decade if demands continue unchecked."

Dan Diorio, vice president of state policy for the Data Center Coalition, countered that water used by data centers needs to be considered in context. In an interview, he cited a 2023 joint legislative audit conducted in Virginia that he said showed a typical data center's water usage did not surpass the amount used in a large office building.

Data centers have also become more efficient in recent years, Diorio said.

"We know that without cooling, the temperature of a server room could basically rise as much as a degree a minute and so the servers ultimately fail," he said. "And if the servers fail, then the internet fails, the data doesn't get stored or processed and the system breaks down, and so those server rooms have to be cooled."

Diorio added that the temperature tolerance of servers continues to improve.

"Probably about 10-15 years ago, you'd walk into a server room, and you'd probably worn a jacket on, because it'd be pretty cool," he said. "I was in a data center last week and, you know, very comfortable and just kind of a typical, long sleeve shirt, right? It was not especially cold."

Rising demand

The lion's share of new data centers is being constructed both in and surrounding Rep. Christine Cockley's western Franklin County district.

"I think my biggest concern is how much we don't know," the Columbus Democrat said.

Others within the Legislature, like Rep. Roy Klopfenstein, however, are not as alarmed. The Haviland Republican and chair of the House Agriculture Committee  said most data centers can recirculate water — a resource he contended is in abundance throughout the state.

"I don't see it as an issue unless there was an incredibly dense area where you had multiple data centers," he said. "But if they're spread out — most of them are — I don't see a problem with water use."

Water demands presented by data centers were part of the discussion during the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates' mid-year conference in Columbus earlier this year. (See Gongwer Ohio Report, June 9, 2025)

There, Justin Schneider, director of business development for Indiana American Water, demonstrated Google's water consumption has tripled since 2016 with most of its withdrawals used for cooling data centers. (Presentation)

The Central Ohio Regional Water Study, an analysis of regional water needs by the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission and relevant state agencies, similarly showed water and wastewater demand will be on the rise in the coming decades due to the surging number of data centers.

Coupled with growth in residential, agriculture and industry demand, Kauffman said "the rise in high-water-usage data centers is exacerbating these pressures."

"Water is not an infinite resource and prioritizing one industry's access without broader public input risks long-term regional strain," she said.

State regulators have increasingly sought solutions for the pressing demands data centers place on Ohio's electric grid, culminating in what some have described as a landmark decision by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio . (See Gongwer Ohio Report, July 9, 2025)

Consumer advocates and AEP Ohio celebrated that data center tariff ruling, which they framed as a way to keep residential consumers from facing higher electric bills.

One of the backers of the proposal, the Ohio Consumers' Counsel, contends a similar water-related solution could prevent those costs too from being shouldered by other consumers.

"Consumers shouldn't be left paying the price for massive data centers to tap into local water systems without limits or transparency," Consumers' Counsel Maureen Willis said. "The PUCO should ensure that the true costs of servicing these enormous facilities aren't shifted onto everyday households."

Mitigation efforts

To decrease their use of water, tech giants such as Google and Microsoft have unveiled plans that either lower or outright eliminate their dependency on the resource.

Both companies have invested heavily in data centers in Ohio — Google kicked off a $600 million facility in New Albany in 2019, while Microsoft put the brakes on a $1 billion investment earlier this year. (See Gongwer Ohio Report, April 11, 2025)

In 2021, Google launched an initiative to replenish more water than it uses for cooling its data centers by 2030, followed by Microsoft's release of its "Datacenter Community Pledge" last August. That strategy has the corporation's data centers use "zero water for cooling."

Amazon Web Services Vice President of Economic Development Roger Wehner said the company has a similar "water neutral" pledge.

In places like Ohio, where the company has invested $19.7 billion in data center infrastructure over the past decade, he noted that the water use is much lower than warmer parts of the country. Still, he said the use of the resource is always made with sustainability in mind.

"We have conversations and invest regularly in creating non-potable or recycled water loops whenever that's possible," he told reporters in New Albany.

Diorio said companies have a host of water mitigation options at their disposal, including water-recycling and "closed loop systems."

We're actively seeing these innovations that are starting to get more widespread and starting to occur at scale, all of that contributing to efficiency," he said.

Kauffman said water-recycling "is an important step in the right direction," since it reduces freshwater intake substantially. It can, however, be expensive.

"Without public policy or incentives in place, it's unlikely that all developers — especially smaller players — will follow suit," she said.

At the same time, she noted there are more sustainable ways to decrease heat generation from data centers besides water. She said options such as air-side economization, liquid immersion cooling and heat reuse technologies are "increasingly viable options that reduce or eliminate the need for water entirely."

Action in other states

Ohio is not alone when it comes to the proliferation of data centers, and some legislatures are taking notice.

In New Jersey, lawmakers passed legislation mandating owners and operators submit quarterly reports of their energy and water use to its state utilities board. Gov. Phil Murphy has yet to sign it.

Sponsoring Senate Majority Leader Teresa Ruiz, D-Essex, said: "Requiring reporting on the water and energy consumption of these facilities will increase oversight, accountability, and give us the data necessary to create equitable policies that protect consumers and our environment."

Diorio said the coalition is generally in opposition to reporting bills like the one in the Garden State, citing concerns that the information could be used by bad actors.

"It goes back to that contextual evidence, and I don't think that states need to pass laws to ultimately understand this information," he said.

Back in Ohio, Cockley expressed interest in starting an artificial intelligence working group that she said would help identify the needs of data centers. She said she previously drafted legislation on the matter with Rep. Thad Claggett, R-Newark, who chairs the House Technology & Innovation Committee .

"We realized, Claggett and I, that it's going to be a very long process to get that through the General Assembly and it might be better served through the governor's office," she said.

Cockley said she was encouraged by the governor's appointment earlier this year of a Missing Persons Working Group and envisioned a similar approach in this case.

"I worked really well with them on the Missing Person's Working Group, so I forwarded the legislation to the governor's office in hopes of them introducing a working group to analyze where we are with AI," she said.

Already, Gov. Mike DeWine broke from the Legislature by vetoing a budget measure that would have ended the state's tax exemption for the sale, storage and use of the equipment by data centers. However, House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, has expressed a desire to override. (See Gongwer Ohio Report, July 1, 2025 & Gongwer Ohio Report, August 7, 2025)

In Georgia, lawmakers likewise pushed for a two-year pause on their tax breaks before Gov. Brian Kemp vetoed it.

Data centers in that state have been accused of reducing residents' access to drinking water, particularly a $750 million Meta data center outside of Atlanta per a report by the New York Times.

With the growing scrutiny, Diorio reiterated efforts of data centers, including one in Georgia, to use water more conservatively. That center takes water from the Chattahoochee River, circulates it through the facility, cleans it and then returns the water back into the river, he said.

"It is overwhelming clear that data centers are sustainable water users," Diorio said.