Senate candidate Jamie Davis calls for data center moratorium
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jamie Davis is calling for a statewide moratorium on new data center construction in Louisiana until the environmental and water impacts are better understood. The proposal comes amid concerns about aquifer withdrawals, electricity use and limited disclosure of projected water consumption, including at Meta’s planned Richland Parish facility.
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jamie Davis called for Louisiana to halt approvals of new data centers until policymakers better understand their environmental and water impacts. Davis said his primary concern is the industry’s potential use of drinking-water aquifers and urged developers to identify alternative cooling sources.
The article highlights uncertainty surrounding Meta’s expanded Hyperion project in Richland Parish, where the company has not released updated water-use projections for a facility that grew from 2 gigawatts to 5 gigawatts. The Louisiana Department of Conservation and Energy said state law does not require Meta to disclose the information, while a Tulane report estimated associated wells could be registered to pump up to 23 million gallons per day from the Mississippi River Alluvial Aquifer.
Meta says it will use closed-loop cooling for most of the year, invest $340 million in local water infrastructure and report withdrawals once the facility is operating. Other projects, including Amazon campuses, Applied Digital’s Rapides Parish development and Hut 8’s West Feliciana project, also face scrutiny over water use, though Hut 8 is funding parish infrastructure upgrades and using closed-loop cooling.