Freshwater managers warned Senate Republicans on Monday that data centers being built around Pennsylvania could stress public water supplies if more sustainable ways of cooling the facilities are not prioritized.
Andrew Dehoff, executive director of Susquehanna River Basin Commission, told lawmakers during a GOP policy committee hearing that his colleagues in parts of the country where data centers are also being developed “are in full-on panic mode about how they’re going to meet the water supply demands.”
A single data center can evaporate up to five million gallons of water per day — or roughly equal to the use of a town of 10,000 to 50,000 people — according to the nonprofit Environmental and Energy Study Institute. The bulk of that use goes toward cooling the heat generated by computer servers and other equipment.
Dehoff said public conversations about data centers have focused too often on electrical grid reliability, consumer prices, land use, job creation and tax revenue.
“These are all certainly important discussions to be had, but rarely is the need for water and the cooling mentioned, and it’s essential to their operations,” Dehoff said. “And that’s disappointing because water is obviously our most basic human need.”
Demand for data centers has skyrocketed with the rapid growth of artificial intelligence technology. Last month, President Donald Trump and U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick announced Pennsylvania would see $90 billion in AI and data center investments in the coming years.
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The Susquehanna River Basin Commission adopted a policy earlier this year to prioritize approving data center projects that rely on dry cooling technology, which relies on air power. Its members must approve any project that pulls more than 20,000 gallons of water per day from the basin.
But even air-based systems ultimately rely on water use because their operation pulls electricity from generators that use water cooling, according to Kristen Bowman Kavanagh, executive director of the Delaware River Basin Commission.
Kavanagh noted to the senators that the Delaware River Basin experienced a drought last year due to record-low rainfall.
“DRBC and other water resource managers need to consider whether water for data centers should take priority over the needs of other domestic, commercial, industrial and agricultural uses during periods of shortage,” Kavanagh said.
She also said data center developers should be required to disclose how much water their proposed projects plan to use, in order to help local officials and water managers better plan.
Reliability concerns
On concerns about electrical grids, the president of PPL Electric Utilities, Christine Martin, said data center growth in Pennsylvania is “doubling the energy demand that took more than 100 years to reach.”
The General Assembly, she said, should work on improving the efficiency of grid infrastructure, like power lines.
During the more than three-hour policy hearing, Republican senators heard testimony from water managers, local government officials, utility companies and economic development organizations.
Much of the hearing focused on proponents’ arguments for data centers in Pennsylvania and how lawmakers could help incentivize potential workers to enter in-demand fields.
John Augustine III, president and CEO of Penn’s Northeast, pointed to a proposed 750,000-square-foot data center in York County as an example of how tax revenues would spike locally. He noted the West Shore School District’s tax collection would rise from $4,054,000 to $4,066,415. Penn’s Northeast is a regional economic development agency for nine counties in the state’s northeast corner.
And Merle Madrid, senior manager of public policy at Amazon Web Services, touted the expected 1,200 construction and supply chain jobs that Amazon’s $20 billion investment to expand data center infrastructure could bring.
Madrid also said Amazon is “constantly innovating” data center designs to lessen their environmental impact and increase their water-use efficiency.
