Watts, Water, and Land: The Data Center Debate by Bea Covington, Greene Economics
Bea Covington, Principal Economist and Sustainability Director at Greene Economics, gave a high level, current state of the AI landscape, both within Washington and throughout the rest of the country. The AI boom is driving the largest US infrastructure buildout since the interstate highway system; 700+ data centers are under construction in 38 states, and 211 billion gallons of water were behind data center’s electrical power in 2023. However, local moratoriums have increased as the communities have pushed back. Covington cited 482 active state and local restrictions in 44 states, with 20 of those restrictions in Washington. Corporations claim several benefits of this buildout, but these are often overstated and unevenly shared when compared to the community costs. Electricity prices rose 267% over five years in areas with high data center concentration, and in addition to the water used for electrical power, 17 billion gallons of water was used directly in 2023. Those numbers are projected to reach 38-73 billion by 2028, and these numbers represent a smaller share.
Data centers aren’t required to report their water use, and most buy from city systems so their exact numbers aren’t easy to calculate exactly. On the larger end of reporting data use, 4 trillion gallons of freshwater was withdrawn in 2024 to power data centers in AZ, CA, GA, IL, OH, TX, and VA, which host half the industry. Meanwhile, there is momentum to address this in local and state policy actions. Washington’s governor established a workgroup which made keeping data center fossil power inside the clean energy laws its first priority. There was a bill brought forward to make data centers pay full grid costs and report water use, which passed in the House and died in the Senate. Local governments have made much more progress with twenty municipalities adopting restrictions, including Seattle and Spokane. To conclude, Covington provided several recommendations to assist in setting policy direction:
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Price the externalities (consequences) - Set specific costs with the data center facilities so they’re paying for the resources and known community impact.
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Disclose before approving permits - Facilities should include water supply assessments, sourcing, consumptive use, and water behind the watts.
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Plan at the scale of the resource - Review clustered projects at the basin level, including water rights, instream flows, and salmon spawning and passage.
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Make benefits enforceable - Set binding community agreements with independent monitoring, with Tribes and host communities at the table.
Leslie Connelly, Department of Ecology. Photo Credit: Tom Ring
Data Centers and Water Quality Regulation by Leslie Connelly, Washington State Department of Ecology
Leslie Connelly, Science, Policy, and Emerging Issues Manager in Ecology’s Water Quality Program, began by stating clearly that all facilities in Washington need a permit from the state’s regulatory agency if they discharge to surface or ground water. This holds facilities to a specific standard when it comes to potential wastewater issues including temperature, salts, metals, treatment chemicals, and other contaminants. Connelly stressed that existing water quality standards may not apply to data center outputs or haven’t been updated to fully account for cooling water or concentrated wastewater streams. While utilizing reclaimed and reuse water may be an option for data centers, cooling increases concentrations of contaminants like chlorites, sulfites, and metals in the water left over. PFAS is also used and infamous as a forever chemical in that it’s challenging to remove. The State Environmental Policy Act requires project proponents to complete checklists and submit project plans which are reviewed by regulatory agencies to comment and give a final determination before a permit is issued. She also cited an executive order issued by Washington’s governor regarding data centers which will publish a report currently going through Tribal consultation to develop best practices for operations and sustainability reporting requirements.
Glen Ruitt, Grant Public Utility District. Photo credit: Tom Ring
Living with Data Centers – Grant County by Glen Ruitt, Grant Public Utility District
Glen Ruitt, Vice President of Legal, Regulatory, and Government Affairs for Grant Public Utility District, shared the PUD’s experience with data centers over the last 20 years and their mission to protect customers, the environment, and grid reliability. Last year, 37% of their energy went to data centers, and the price of their electricity for standard homeowners was ⅓ less than the national average. Ruitt explained that the difference between a cloud-based and an AI data center is the speed of energy required. Cloud-based has a more steady, consistent load vs AI is much more rapid. The PUD charges an increment fee to data centers, sets regulations based on peak loads, and they’ve developed a rate structure to protect users from increases due to data centers. He concluded with the point that self-sufficient energy generation in data centers is much more rigorous to set up, so it’s important that PUDs can find a balance between supplying data centers and individual properties and businesses without harm or additional costs to the smaller users.
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