How Data Centers are Affecting Your Water

1 hour ago

Data centers power much of modern life. Streaming, cloud storage, online shopping, artificial intelligence, and countless everyday digital services depend on massive facilities filled with servers running around the clock.

But keeping all of that equipment running requires more than electricity. It also requires cooling, and in many data centers, that means water.

As data center development expands across the country, including here in Texas, their water use is becoming an increasingly important part of the conversation around local water resources.

Why Do Data Centers Use Water?

Servers generate a tremendous amount of heat. Without effective cooling, that heat can reduce performance or damage equipment.

Many data centers use cooling systems that transfer heat away from servers and ultimately release it through cooling towers. In these systems, water helps remove heat through evaporation. The U.S. Department of Energy's data center cooling guidance explains that water use in cooling-tower systems is closely tied to the amount of heat generated by IT equipment and the efficiency of the cooling system.

Not every data center uses the same cooling technology. Some facilities rely more heavily on air cooling or closed-loop liquid systems, while others use substantial amounts of water through evaporative cooling.

Location, climate, facility design, and computing demand can all influence how much water a particular data center requires.

Where Does the Water Come From?

Data centers may obtain cooling water from several sources:

Municipal drinking-water systems
Groundwater wells
Rivers, lakes, or other surface-water sources
Reclaimed municipal wastewater
Reused water from nearby industrial facilities

Not every cooling application requires drinking-quality water. Reclaimed water and other non-potable sources can sometimes reduce demand on the same treated water supply used by nearby homes and businesses.

An EPA case study in Quincy, Washington describes a closed-loop system that treats and reuses data center cooling water. The project was estimated to save 138 million gallons of water annually while reducing demand on the community’s potable groundwater supply.

However, alternative water sources and recycling systems require planning, infrastructure, and investment. They are not automatically available at every site.

What Does This Mean for Surrounding Communities?

The impact of a data center depends heavily on where it is built and how its cooling system operates.

In areas with plentiful water supplies, additional demand may be relatively manageable. In areas already facing rapid population growth, drought, or pressure on groundwater supplies, large industrial users can become another factor communities must consider when planning for future demand.

That is particularly relevant in a fast-growing state like Texas, where households, agriculture, businesses, municipalities, and new industrial development all depend on shared water resources.

Water demand is already significant at the household level. As we explored in Texan Homes Use How Much Water?, the average Texas household used approximately 255 gallons of water per day in 2022.

Adding large industrial users makes long-term water planning and conservation increasingly important.

How Is the Water Treated?

Cooling water has to be carefully managed because minerals, sediment, and biological material can accumulate inside cooling systems.

Treatment can include filtration, chemical treatment, softening, and in some cases reverse osmosis. The goal is to control scaling, corrosion, fouling, and biological growth that could reduce cooling efficiency or damage equipment.

Reverse osmosis can also make it possible to treat some cooling-tower blowdown so that purified water can be reused within the facility. The Department of Energy identifies this as one potential strategy for reducing a data center's freshwater requirements.

The technology operates on the same basic principle used by residential RO systems: pressure moves water through a semipermeable membrane to reduce dissolved substances.

A Bigger Conversation About Water

Data centers are not the only source of growing water demand.

Population growth, agriculture, manufacturing, energy production, and everyday household use all contribute. Data centers simply represent a relatively new and rapidly expanding part of that larger equation.

There are also ways to reduce their impact. More efficient cooling systems, reclaimed water, improved water recycling, and alternative cooling technologies can all help reduce dependence on freshwater supplies.

For homeowners, the same basic principle applies: use water thoughtfully and make the water you consume count.

Build a More Water-Conscious Home

You may not control how a nearby data center manages its cooling system, but you can make more informed decisions about water use at home.

Checking for leaks, adjusting irrigation schedules, running full loads of laundry and dishes, and installing efficient fixtures can all help reduce unnecessary water use. Our guide to Texas household water use offers a closer look at where those gallons go and some simple ways to conserve them.

And when it comes to the water you actually drink, NECOA's Smart Water Purifier uses a 3-filter, 5-stage reverse osmosis system to provide purified hot, cold, and ambient water on demand.

Water supports nearly every part of modern life, from the servers powering our digital world to the water flowing through our homes. Understanding where it goes is the first step toward using it more thoughtfully.

Build a More Water-Conscious Home Today