US data centers tripled water use to 17B gallons in a decade

US data centers tripled annual water consumption to 17B gallons

A Congressional Research Service report estimates US data centers consumed 17 billion gallons of water in 2023, triple the 2014 figure. Over 80% is indirect use from electricity generation, not on-site cooling. No federal agency tracks this systematically; data comes from a patchwork of state reports, and many municipal contracts hide per-facility numbers. AI-driven denser hardware is pushing both power and water demand higher, and the report notes consumption likely rose after 2023. A proposed 330 MW California campus is already in court over water from fallowed farmland. The EU now requires operators to report freshwater use, while 20 US federal bills remain mostly stalled.

Why it matters: First national-level CRS estimate of data center water use, with the counterintuitive 80%-from-power-generation angle lifting it above generic environmental reporting. But the number is stitched from fragmented data and post-2023 figures are missing, so it stays at the feature...