U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) introduced on March 25 the “Data Center Water and Energy Transparency Act” to require data centers to disclose their energy and water usage.
Data centers consume significant amounts of water and electricity, Durbin notes, and often, the costs of this increased demand are passed down to American consumers. The International Energy Agency estimates that a 100-megawatt data center may consume about the same amount of water as 2600 households, and many proposed data centers are more than 10 times the size of a 100-megawatt center.
Specifically, the “Data Center Water and Energy Transparency Act” would:
- Require data center operators and developers to report the quantity of energy and water consumed at their facilities to the states where they operate
- Require prospective data centers to report their estimated energy and water consumption over the first five years of operation
- Make information gathered regarding data center energy and water consumption available to local governments considering data center construction in their communities
- Direct states to aggregate and anonymize data center energy and water consumption reports and submit them to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy, and the Department of Agriculture
- Direct the EPA, DOE, and USDA to jointly issue regional reports regarding the energy and water consumption of data centers
- Allow the EPA, DOE, and USDA to fine noncompliant data centers.
There are approximately 4000 active data centers in the United States with roughly 3000 more planned or under construction. Rural counties, where water and power must be carefully managed, are increasingly targeted for data center development.
NGWA recently underscored the critical role groundwater professionals play in helping communities manage water resources responsibly as data centers expand across the United States with the Association’s latest position paper and a three-part series in its monthly trade magazine, Water Well Journal.
The position paper notes that data center growth must be planned and managed in a manner that protects groundwater resources that are relied upon by communities and ecosystems. It adds that policymakers, regulators, and data center developers need to incorporate groundwater sustainability into siting, permitting, and operational decisions, including clear disclosure of water sources and use.
Both the position paper and three-part article series can be found on the Associations' website dedicated to data centers titled Issue: Data Centers and Groundwater.