The sign outside Tom Hermes’ farm in Perkins Township, Ohio—just a short drive south from Lake Erie’s shores—proudly states that his family has been farming the land since 1900. Currently, he manages 130 cows across 1,200 acres, cultivating corn, wheat, grass, and soybeans.
For his family, their animals, and the broader business, water is vital.
In May 2024, the Texas-based Connected Data Centers raised concerns as construction began on a four-building, 200,000-square-foot data center, NEO-01, situated on a brownfield site next to farmland leased by Hermes.
“We rely on city water here, and if all the tap water is drawn out, the pressure will drop,” he said about the data center.
“They’re not beneficial, that much I know.”
Two years prior, the company announced plans to hire 18 people during construction and invest about $202 million in a “hyperscale” data center that aims to employ even more. The company employs a closed-loop air-cooling system to cool its equipment, claiming it reduces water usage, but artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other energy-intensive processes still depend on water for cooling.
Lake Erie’s shores, just a 10-minute drive north, haven’t seen such low levels in years.
Water levels across all Great Lakes have begun to rise decreasing in recent months as part of a long-term trend. Since 2019, water levels in the Great Lakes have also decreased by approximately 2 to 4 feet. Experts attribute this decline to the record-high water levels experienced since 2020, but as a massive new water consumer—data centers—emerges, concerns grow.
The Great Lakes, especially Lake Erie, the largest single source of freshwater accumulation globally, are already feeling the impact of drought and rising temperatures, resulting in significant lake-effect snowstorms and elevated evaporation rates due to the lack of ice.
Major cities like Chicago, Toronto, Detroit, and Pittsburgh are all within a few hundred miles, making the small, under-resourced communities surrounding the Great Lakes an attractive spot for data center companies.
Microsoft is constructing what it dubs “the world’s most powerful AI data center” in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, slated to open early next year and projected to consume up to 8.4 billion gallons of water from the city of Racine annually. Racine sources its water from Lake Michigan. Similar developments are occurring in Hobart, Indiana, where AWS intends to build a data center just two miles from Lake Michigan’s shores, and Port Washington, Wisconsin.
In Benton Harbor, Michigan, residents are worried that a proposed $3 billion data center could pollute their environment and worsen traffic congestion.
In Woodville Township, 40 miles west of Align’s under-construction data center in Ohio, hundreds of individuals gathered at a public meeting last October to express concerns over another proposed data center project in the rural area.
“In the Great Lakes region, particularly in states like Illinois and Ohio, [there is] one of the highest concentrations of data centers. Recent research indicates that, in addition to the substantial water used for cooling, even more is consumed to generate electricity to support data center operations,” said Kirsten James, senior program director for water at the Boston-based nonprofit organization Ceres.
“These impacts could clash with community water resource management efforts.”
The Great Lakes Compact, a 2005 agreement endorsed by governors from eight U.S. states and two Canadian provinces, requires that Great Lakes water must only be used within local watersheds.
A study by Purdue University found that on average, data centers consume about 300,000 gallons of water daily. The water used is significantly heated, and in centers lacking closed-loop systems, the heated effluent (often as little as 20% of the initial volume) may be discharged into local wastewater systems or the environment, causing serious repercussions for ecosystems and human residents. Even closed-loop systems that reuse the same water need millions of gallons for operation.
Many emerging data centers source their water from local municipalities, which obtain their supply from groundwater, much of which originates in the Great Lakes Basin.
Some communities are taking a stand. Last month, residents of Fife Lake, Michigan welcomed the news that plans for a data center in their small town of 471 people would be dropped due to local pushback.
Similar instances of successful opposition are unfolding in Indiana and other areas.
However, data centers are pushing back.
Private companies representing data center interests often succeed in suing local authorities when they attempt to restrict certain types of development, rendering small towns powerless in their efforts to exclude these massive water-consuming entities.
In Saline Township, Michigan, a community of around 400 near Ann Arbor, OpenAI and Oracle successfully leveraged a prominent firm to sue local officials, overcome resistance, and establish a vast facility that consumes 1.4 gigawatts of electricity (enough to power approximately 1.4 million homes).
The Detroit Free Press Editorial Board criticized the decision as “a fait accompli thrust into this small Washtenaw County community, against the will of residents, their elected representatives, and the Michigan Attorney General, with no expert or external testimony except for a brief public hearing on Microsoft Teams.”
Nonetheless, data companies and their supporters contend that their presence offers net benefits to Great Lakes communities through job creation and investment over the years.
Aligned invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in Perkins Township, the local school system, and the career center. In exchange, they are set to receive a 15-year tax exemption from local governments. A representative declined to provide details to the Guardian regarding the water consumption and sourcing of the data center.
Local governments endorsing these facilities argue that data centers will enhance tax revenues and aid in repairing aging infrastructure, including water systems that require major upgrades. Calls, emails, and messages sent to Erie County commissioners regarding plans to supply water to the Perkins Township data center went unanswered.
Some residents of Perkins Township mention that the construction phase has supported many local businesses, generating jobs in the area.
However, many contend that these investments may not be worth the long-term ramifications for the communities.
Amanda Vogl, who currently works for a heating company located near a data center, expresses concerns about water and other issues.
“A couple of years back, there was a water pollution issue at the site. I’m really worried. Is this true?” she asked. “[Is the water] going back to the lake?”
Two years ago, the Ohio EPA designated a cleanup company responsible for illegal discharges into the state’s waters after it was found that the construction site of the data center had polluted the river that feeds into Lake Erie.
“I don’t understand why they placed it so close to the road; it’s an eyesore,” Vogl stated.
She noted other odd occurrences at her workplace recently, including power surges.
“I can’t say for sure if it’s related to the data center, but almost every week we lose power and have to restart everything completely. Some items had to be replaced because [the power surge] damaged them.”
Source: www.theguardian.com
