Five things to know as data centers spread across rural America
Data centers, especially large-scale facilities for AI, consume vast amounts of water for cooling, with much of it lost to evaporation and potential environmental impacts from discharge. Rural communities are increasingly opposing these projects due to concerns about farmland conversion and limited local benefits. A common tactic for opposition is pressuring local governments to reject rezoning requests, which has seen some success.
Data centers, crucial for digital information processing, are significant consumers of water for cooling, particularly hyperscale facilities built for artificial intelligence. Google's data center in Pryor, Oklahoma, for example, uses approximately 1.1 billion gallons of water annually, primarily through evaporative cooling systems, with most of this water lost to evaporation.
The industry faces pressure to adopt more water-efficient technologies like closed-loop or air-cooled systems, which, while conserving water, demand substantially more electricity. Furthermore, there is a noted lack of transparency regarding the environmental impact of data center cooling water discharge, with limited data available on how released water, potentially containing chemicals, affects rivers, groundwater, and wastewater systems.
Opposition to data center expansion has grown in rural areas, mirroring broader resistance to large industrial developments. Residents express concerns about the conversion of farmland into industrial sites and the perception of minimal local benefits. A key strategy for communities to challenge these projects involves lobbying local governments to deny rezoning requests, such as the ongoing case of the Beltline data center project in Yukon and Oklahoma City, which still requires approval to rezone agricultural land.