A new report highlights how planned data centers encroach into water-stressed communities by not disclosing their actual water use. The report raises concerns about the environmental and social impacts of potential expansions in California.
Data center field engineers install new cables on Thursday, July 17, 2025, at the Sabey data center in Quincy, Washington. KUOW Photo/Megan FarmerData center builders don’t tell the public how much water they use, according to a new report — and the industry is encroaching into water-stressed and vulnerable communities.
The report, by the think tank Next10 and researchers at Santa Clara University, finds that planned data centers are spreading to regions reliant on overtapped groundwater and strained surface water, with potentially major effects in the Central and Imperial Valleys. The researchers found that a patchwork of state, federal and local policies allow data center operators to avoid publicly disclosing their actual water use.
California’s data centers mostly cluster in the south San Francisco Bay Area and the city of Los Angeles, with smaller concentrations in Sacramento and San Diego. Khara Boender, director of state policy for the Data Center Coalition, which has opposed bills mandating more granular water use reporting, said in an email the industry is ‘committed to being a good neighbor.
’ Boender argues that data centers collectively ‘used significantly less water than other essential industries in 2025, including the agriculture, power, food and beverage, and semiconductor sectors,’ but the coalition offers no data to back that up. Stewart-Frey, the environmental scientist behind the report, said they’re at the brink of this happening in California. Her report is not advocating against data centers but suggests communities should know what they’re getting themselves into
Data Center Publicly Disclosing Water Use Environment Water Stress California Data Center Builders Central And Imperial Valleys
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