COWETA COUNTY, Ga. — Massive data centers proposed for metro Atlanta expect to use millions of gallons of water per day.
Some of those data centers are planning to use more water than entire Georgia towns.
Channel 2 consumer investigator Justin Gray has been looking into what that means for the communities around these data centers.
“If you look up the hill to the left of the bridge there,” said Coweta County resident Robert Lytten.
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Neighbors in Coweta County tried to show Gray the proposed Project Sail data center on the ground, but it’s easier to see from News Chopper 2.
The facility would be bigger than all the terminals at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport combined.
“It is going to put pressure on the county water supply. There’s no doubt about it,” said Coweta County resident Steve Swope.
Water might not be the first thing you think of when you look at big, massive data centers like the Google facility in Douglas County, but most data centers rely on lots of water to cool the systems.
“Nothing uses water or energy the way that data centers do,” said Chris Manganiello, Water Policy Director for Chattahoochee Riverkeeper.
He has been trying to get hard numbers to answer a pretty basic question.
“How will the operations at data centers affect a community’s water supply?” asked Manganiello.
Take that Douglas County Google site.
Channel 2 Action News filed open records requests for the agreement between Google and the county.
All references to water use specifics and water requirements throughout the document are blacked out, redacted, secret.
The water use numbers for a Microsoft Data Center were also hidden.
Our open records requests even turned up non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and one agreement where the name of the company was redacted.
“In an absence of information, we’re left with more questions than answers,” said Manganiello.
Unlike most states, Georgia requires companies to share proposed water usage numbers as part of development plans.
The largest data centers are proposing using 1 million, 2 million, 5 million — even 6 million gallons of water daily.
The water tower in Newnan holds about 1 million gallons of water. Project Sail estimates it would go through six Newnan water towers per day to meet its daily need of 6 million gallons.
“You look at the Hyundai plant down there in Savannah, they use about two million gallons of water a day,” said Swope.
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Dan Diorio is vice president of state policy for the Data Center Coalition, the industry group that represents data centers.
“They are responsible and efficient water users,” said Diorio.
He said those proposed water numbers don’t tell the full story, that much of the water brought in each day is returned to the water system.
Google said its data center in Douglas County was built with special systems to be able to use 100% recycled water.
But Google’s sustainability report shows only about 17-perecent goes back to the water supply.
The rest – 366 million gallons – is gone, evaporated.
“The average data center is gonna use less water than the average golf course,” said Diorio.
But massive projects like Project Sail aren’t the average data center, and metro Atlanta’s water is reliant on a Chattahoochee River prone to drought.
“If there is a shortage of water, who gets priority?” asked Swope.
And why are the specifics of these agreements with those kinds of answers secret?
“Why not be more transparent as an industry with how that water use is occurring?” asked Justin Gray.
“Well, the data center industry, just like any other industry, has to consider confidentiality in terms of protecting proprietary and competitive information,” answered Diorio.
Data centers have provided local governments details on their water needs – that blacked out info – so water authorities can plan and build more infrastructure.
“We are fully committed to paying our full cost of service both for electricity and water,” said Diorio.
While data center operators pledge costs won’t be passed on to you, neighbors remain unconvinced water bills won’t go up.
“There will come a reckoning, and we don’t want to see that happen,” said Coweta County resident Rob Cole.
The data center industry pointed Channel 2 Action News to a study by the state of Virginia.
Virginia and Georgia are the top two places these data centers are locating.
It found that most data centers use only about the same amount of water as an average large office building – less than seven million gallons a year.
But the new large scale proposed centers can use that much in just a few days.
Data centers are adamant this is not going to impact what you pay for water and that they will pay for system upgrades.
But with all these agreements kept secret by things like non-disclosure agreements, we essentially have to take their word for it.
We contacted Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Google to ask about water usage at their data centers.
Amazon provided this statement:
“Amazon is committed to being a responsible neighbor in our data center communities, investing in local economic development while prioritizing water and energy efficiency that exceeds industry standards. We engage regularly with community stakeholders to understand local priorities and address concerns transparently, supporting both technological innovation and the specific needs of each region we operate in.”
Microsoft responded but said they are unable to accommodate an interview.
We are still waiting to hear back from Meta and Google.
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