Data Center Census

Tracker

How much water do data centers use?

Water figures as published for the projects in the Census. Of 101 tracked projects, 26 have a published water-use figure and 68 disclose something about water or cooling.

Data centers use water mainly for cooling. How much depends on the cooling design: evaporative systems consume water continuously, while closed-loop and air-cooled designs use far less on site but often more electricity. Much of the public argument is about numbers nobody has published, so this page shows only figures a developer, agency or filing has put on the record, and says so where there are none.

ProjectWater useWater sourceCooling
Fermi America Project Matador
Amarillo, Carson County, TX
2,500,000 gal/day City of Amarillo (municipal) Not published
Stratos Project
Box Elder County, UT
Not publishedPrivately owned water rights; pending application for 11 acre-feet per year for power generation after an earlier 1,900 acre-foot application was withdrawn following public objection closed-loop
Comanche Circle
Tolar, Hood County, TX
150,000 gal/day private groundwater wells; private wastewater treatment plant closed-loop (company-stated)
Homer City Energy Campus
Homer City, Indiana County, PA
Not publishedTwo Lick Creek, supplied by the Central Indiana County Water Authority Not published
Project Camellia
Rincon, Effingham County, GA
30,000 gal/day Effingham County Water Treatment Plant, without line extensions closed-loop
Project Tembo
Cheyenne, Laramie County, WY
Not publisheddeep wells beneath the local aquifer closed-loop, air-cooled
Project Jupiter
Santa Teresa, Doña Ana County, NM
20,000 gal/day Oracle says no potable water for cooling; a well drilled for the project has pumped about 103 million gallons since April 2026 closed-loop
Quantum Frederick
Adamstown, Frederick County, MD
1,300,000 gal Not publishedNot published
Project Tamarack
West Columbia, Mason County, WV
Not publishedNot publishedclosed-loop
IREN Sweetwater data center campus
Sweetwater, Fisher County, TX
Not publishedNot publishedair and liquid cooling
Project Horizon
Fort Stockton, Pecos County, TX
Not publishedNon-potable groundwater within existing permitted allocations Poolside's 2025 announcement described air cooling; its CEO later described closed-loop liquid cooling using non-potable groundwater
Project Phoenix
Shippingport, Beaver County, PA
Not publishedNot publishedclosed-loop system recycling deionized water; zero water for operational cooling (company-stated)
Joliet Technology Center
Joliet, Will County, IL
150,000 gal/day Aquifer (city plans shift to Lake Michigan water in 2030) closed-loop
Vantage Frontier Campus
Albany, Shackelford County, TX
Not publishedNot publishedair and liquid cooling; closed-loop chiller design
Saline Township Stargate Data Center
Saline Township, Washtenaw County, MI
20,000 gal/day On-site well with its own waste treatment system Closed-loop, air-cooled; consent judgment bans water-intensive evaporative cooling
Port Washington (Lighthouse) Data Center Campus
Port Washington, Ozaukee County, WI
10,000 gal/day Not publishedAir-cooled and liquid-to-liquid systems with closed-loop chilled water (developer says WUE near zero)
Fort Meade Hyperscale Data Center
Fort Meade, Polk County, FL
50,000 gal/day Upper Floridan Aquifer (city water) closed-loop
Project Marvel
Bessemer, Jefferson County, AL
2,000,000 gal/day Warrior River Water Authority (with Jefferson County Sewer), per developer; discussions ongoing as of Nov. 2025 closed-loop
Stargate Abilene
Abilene, Taylor County, TX
Not publishedNot publishedclosed-loop liquid
Stargate Milam County
Burlington, Milam County, TX
Not publishedCompany says the site is designed to minimize water use (no figures given) Closed-loop water cooling
QTS Cedar Rapids Data Center Campus
Cedar Rapids, Linn County, IA
Not publishedNot publishedclosed-loop, water-free cooling
Goodnight Campus
Claude, Armstrong County, TX
Not publishedAquifer (groundwater), with recirculating cooling closed-loop / recirculating
Global AI Data Center
Windsor, Weld County, CO
Not publishedInitial fill of 65,000 gallons with about 6,500 gallons annual top-off closed-loop (permit condition)
Meta El Paso Data Center
El Paso, El Paso County, TX
2,500,000 gal/day Not publishedNot published
Meta Lebanon Data Center
Lebanon, Boone County, IN
3,000,000 gal/day Eagle Creek Reservoir and other sources piped to LEAP district, per News and Tribune closed-loop, direct-to-chip liquid cooling with dry coolers
Polaris Forge 1
Ellendale, Dickey County, ND
Not publishedNot publishedclosed-loop recirculating water; company calls it waterless cooling
Project Boulder
Walterboro, Colleton County, SC
Not publishedAbout 500,000 gallons to fill closed-loop system closed-loop non-evaporative
Project Cannoli
Van Buren Township, Wayne County, MI
3,600,000 gal/day Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) system via a connection to the 42-inch GLWA main at Tyler and Haggerty roads Not published
Project Sail
Newnan, Coweta County, GA
300,000 gal/day
6,000,000 gal/day
Not publishedNot published
Lake Mariner
Somerset, Niagara County, NY
Not publishedNot publishedclosed-loop water cooling
CyrusOne Sangamon County Data Center
Waverly, Sangamon County, IL
2,800 gal/day Apple Creek Water Cooperative air-cooled, closed-loop
Amazon Web Services Louisa County campuses
Louisa, Louisa County, VA
Not publishedNortheast Creek Reservoir (raw water) water-cooled using untreated raw water
CRG Festus Data Center
Festus, Jefferson County, MO
Not publishedNot publishedclosed-loop (per CRG)
Compass Statesville
Statesville, Iredell County, NC
Not publishedNot publishedair-cooled
closed-loop hybrid cooling (developer-stated)
Tooele Valley data center (Burmester Road / I-80)
Tooele County, UT
Not publishedGroundwater treated by reverse osmosis; brine discharged toward Great Salt Lake (up to 0.26 MGD at full build-out, ~29,000 gpd Phase I) Not published
Hut 8 River Bend Campus
St. Francisville, West Feliciana Parish, LA
Not publishedNot publishedclosed-loop
Imperial Data Center
Imperial, Imperial County, CA
750,000 gal/day Originally planned recycled water from nearby cities; developer now seeking Colorado River water from Imperial Irrigation District Not published
CoreWeave Lancaster data center
Lancaster, Lancaster County, PA
20,000 gal/day Not publishedair cooling and a closed-loop water system
Google Botetourt County Data Center Campus
Botetourt County, VA
2,000,000 gal/day Western Virginia Water Authority (new infrastructure at Google's expense) air-cooling for the first of three buildings
Nebius Vineland Data Center
Vineland, Cumberland County, NJ
Not publishedNebius says 1 million-gallon initial fill and about 7 Olympic pools a year; press reports about 20 million gallons a year closed-loop
New Hill Digital Campus
Apex, Wake County, NC
Not publishedrecirculating nonpotable water (developer-stated) Not published
Project Blue
Tucson, Pima County, AZ
20,000 gal/day Groundwater wells approved by ADWR closed-loop air-cooled
Golden Valley Technology Hub
Taft, Kern County, CA
Not publishedNot publishedclosed-loop, non-evaporative
QTS Fayetteville data center campus
Fayetteville, Fayette County, GA
2,000 gal/day Fayette County Water System (municipal) closed-loop
Sabey Decatur Technology Park
Indianapolis, Marion County, IN
Not publishedNot publishedclosed-loop water-reduction system (developer-stated)
Perry Township Data Center
Canton, Stark County, OH
Not publishedmunicipal (City of Canton) ambient air in cooler months; active cooling mainly in summer
Prime Phoenix Campus
Avondale, AZ
Not publishedNot publishedclosed-loop cooling engineered for zero process water use during operations
Utah Data Center
Bluffdale, Utah County, UT
1,700,000 gal/day
1,200,000 gal/day
municipal (City of Bluffdale water-delivery system) Not published
Blueprint Taylor Data Center
Taylor, Williamson County, TX
Not publishedNot publishedclosed-loop
DC BLOX Nashville Data Center
Nashville, Davidson County, TN
Not publishedNot publishedclosed-loop water recirculation (per DC BLOX)
Amazon Web Services Madison County Mega Site campus
Canton, Madison County, MS
Not publishedCanton Municipal Utilities now; switching to treated municipal wastewater (Veolia facility) for cooling Not published
Amazon Web Services Richmond County data center campus
Hamlet, Richmond County, NC
Not publishedRichmond County water system (municipal) outside air most of the year, with water-based cooling in peak summer
Balico data center campus and gas plant
Chatham, Pittsylvania County, VA
2,000,000 gal/day Not publishedNot published
Compass Datacenters Red Oak second campus
Red Oak, Ellis County, TX
Not publishedNot city water for cooling (per city leaders) closed-loop
Falls Township Innovation Campus
Falls Township, Bucks County, PA
Not publishedNot publishedWater-based cooling less than 2% of the year
Google Morgan County Data Center
Monrovia, Morgan County, IN
Not publishedNot onsite groundwater (company-stated) Not published
Google Palo data center campus
Palo, Linn County, IA
12,000,000 gal/day Cedar River Not published
Highlander SM One data center
San Marcos, Hays County, TX
70,000 gal/day Local aquifers Not published
Meta Cheyenne Data Center
Cheyenne, Laramie County, WY
Not publishedNot publishedFirst phase closed-loop; second phase evaporative
Microsoft Fairwater
Mount Pleasant, Racine County, WI
Not publishedRacine water; the expansion's annual requirement is not to exceed 8.4 million gallons closed-loop liquid cooling for over 90% of facility; outside air for the rest, with water only on the hottest days
Microsoft Fairwater Atlanta
Fayetteville, Fayette County, GA
Not publishedclosed-loop; Microsoft says the initial fill equals what about 20 homes use in a year and operations consume almost zero water closed-loop liquid (direct liquid cooling at rack level, ~140 kW per rack)
Microsoft Gaines Township data center
Caledonia, Kent County, MI
Not publishedByron-Gaines Water System (municipal); Microsoft says it will not withdraw groundwater Not published
Pennsylvania Digital 1 (PAX-1)
Middlesex Township, Cumberland County, PA
400,000 gal/day Not publishedNot published
Project Rainier (AWS New Carlisle campus)
New Carlisle, St. Joseph County, IN
Not publishedNot publishedPer AWS, no cooling water used October–March, minimal use April–September
Project Thunderbird
Enid, Garfield County, OK
Not publishedRaw water from the Kaw Lake pipeline closed-loop
Salem Township Innovation Campus
Salem Township, Luzerne County, PA
Not publishedSusquehanna River, via Talen Energy's existing infrastructure and withdrawal docket Outside-air cooling most of the year; water-based cooling less than 2% of the year
Spring Valley Technology Park
Loudoun County, VA
Not publishedNot publishedAir-cooling technology (applicant commitment)
White Oak Technology Park
Appling, Columbia County, GA
6,500,000 gal/day Not publishedClosed-loop cooling required under Data Center zoning district

Figures are as stated by the cited source for each project; open a project for the source and any notes. “Not published” means no figure was found in the sources reviewed.