Data centers use millions of gallons residential water. Experts say there's a better way.
Data centers across Illinois are consuming millions of gallons of municipal drinking water daily, with individual centers using as much as a medium-sized town. Experts from UIC and the Alliance for the Great Lakes advocate for a shift to using recycled wastewater for cooling to conserve the state's limited freshwater supply and avoid future water crises. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources declined to comment on the issue.
Data centers throughout Illinois are consuming millions of gallons of water daily, straining the state's water resources. Rachel Havelock, who leads the Fresh Water Lab at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), highlighted that a single data center can use 5 million gallons of water in one day, equivalent to a medium-sized town, with this water often lost to the system through evaporative cooling.
Experts explain that most data centers in Illinois currently rely on municipal drinking water. Havelock and others propose a shift to utilizing treated wastewater from treatment plants, calling it "low-hanging fruit" for Illinois, a practice already implemented in states like California. Andrea Densham, Director of Regional Government Affairs for the Alliance for the Great Lakes, stressed the importance of thoughtful planning and management regarding regional water use, especially concerning data centers, to avoid "devastating choices" in the near future.
Data center water consumption in Illinois reached 17.4 billion gallons in 2023 and is projected to rise to 72.6 billion gallons by 2028, underscoring the urgency of the issue. While experts emphasized the need to bring treated wastewater into productive use by 2026, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources declined to be interviewed or provide information on the topic.