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For Beverly Morris, retirement in 2016 was meant to be a peaceful escape to rural Georgia, surrounded by nature. Today, that tranquility is shattered. Just 400 yards from her Mansfield, Georgia, home stands a massive, windowless structure – a data center, brimming with servers, cables, and blinking lights. It’s a stark reminder of the escalating tension between booming tech infrastructure and local communities.
“I can’t live in my home with half of my home functioning and no water,” laments Ms. Morris. “I can’t drink the water.” She attributes the severe sediment buildup and low water pressure in her private well to the construction of this Meta-owned facility. Ms. Morris now resorts to hauling water in buckets to flush her toilet, and despite plumbing fixes, residue persists in her tap water. “I’m afraid to drink the water, but I still cook with it, and brush my teeth with it,” she adds, voicing palpable worry.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, maintains that its operations are not linked to Ms. Morris’s water issues. In a statement, the company emphasized its commitment to being “a good neighbour” and cited an independent groundwater study that found its data center did “not adversely affect groundwater conditions in the area.” Despite Meta’s stance, Ms. Morris is convinced the company has overstayed its welcome, stating, “This was my perfect spot, but it isn’t anymore.”
The Physical Reality of the Digital ‘Cloud’
While we often perceive the “cloud” as an intangible digital realm, its reality is profoundly physical. This digital ether resides in over 10,000 data centers globally, with the majority located in the US, followed by the UK and Germany. The surge in online activity, particularly with the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT, is accelerating the construction of these facilities. Consequently, complaints from nearby residents are also on the rise.
The US data center boom is increasingly met with local activism. A report by Data Center Watch reveals that projects worth an estimated $64 billion (£47 billion) nationwide have been delayed or blocked due to community concerns. These concerns extend beyond just construction disruption; a significant issue is the enormous volume of water required to keep these powerful servers cool.
Data Centers: A Thirsty Infrastructure
“These are very hot processors,” testified Mark Mills of the National Center for Energy Analytics before Congress in April, highlighting the substantial water needed for cooling. Many facilities employ evaporative cooling systems, where water absorbs heat and then evaporates, a process akin to how human sweat cools the body. On peak hot days, a single data center can consume millions of gallons.
One alarming study estimates that by 2027, AI-driven data centers globally could collectively consume a staggering 1.7 trillion gallons of water.
Georgia: A Microcosm of the Conflict
Few regions illustrate this growing conflict more clearly than Georgia, which has emerged as one of the fastest-growing data center markets in the US. Its naturally humid climate provides a cost-effective and abundant water source for cooling, making it attractive to developers. However, this abundance may come at a severe environmental cost to local ecosystems and communities.
Gordon Rogers, executive director of Flint Riverkeeper, a non-profit dedicated to protecting Georgia’s Flint River, offers a firsthand look at the impact. At a creek downhill from a new data center construction site by US firm Quality Technology Services (QTS), volunteer George Dietz scoops a sample of cloudy, brown water. “It shouldn’t be that colour,” Dietz states, suggesting sediment runoff and potentially flocculants—chemicals used in construction to prevent erosion that can create harmful sludge if they escape into water systems.
QTS asserts that its data centers adhere to high environmental standards and contribute millions in local tax revenue. Nevertheless, while third-party contractors often handle construction, the repercussions are ultimately borne by local residents. “They shouldn’t be doing it,” argues Mr. Rogers. “A larger wealthier property owner does not have more property rights than a smaller, less wealthy property owner.”
Industry Pledges and Future Pathways
Tech giants are acknowledging these escalating issues and committing to action. Will Hewes, global water stewardship lead at Amazon Web Services (AWS), the world’s largest data center operator, states, “Our goal is that by 2030, we’ll be putting more water back into the watersheds and communities where we’re operating data centers, than we’re taking out.” AWS is investing in initiatives such as leak repairs, rainwater harvesting, and the use of treated wastewater for cooling. In Virginia, they collaborate with farmers to reduce nutrient pollution in Chesapeake Bay, and in water-stressed regions like South Africa and India, AWS invests in water access and quality projects even where cooling water isn’t used directly.
Hewes notes that in the Americas, AWS typically uses water for cooling on only about 10% of the hottest days annually. Yet, the cumulative impact is significant. A single AI query, such as a request to ChatGPT, can use as much water as a small bottle purchased from a corner shop. Multiply this by billions of daily queries, and the immense scale of water consumption becomes strikingly clear.
Professor Rajiv Garg, who teaches cloud computing at Emory University in Atlanta, emphasizes that data centers are an indispensable “backbone of modern life” and are here to stay. “There’s no turning back,” he affirms. However, he advocates for a forward-thinking approach, urging the adoption of smarter cooling systems, extensive rainwater harvesting, and more efficient infrastructure. While admitting a “huge strain” in the short term, Prof. Garg sees a promising shift towards sustainability within the industry.
Despite these long-term prospects, there’s little immediate solace for homeowners like Beverly Morris, caught between the promise of a digital future and the tangible degradation of their present reality. Data centers have transcended mere industry trends to become a matter of national policy, with political figures advocating for unprecedented AI infrastructure projects powered by “American data.”
Back in Georgia, the pervasive humidity underscores why the state remains so attractive to data center developers. For locals, the future of technology has already arrived, and it’s often loud, resource-intensive, and challenging to coexist with. As AI continues its rapid expansion, the fundamental challenge remains clear: how to power tomorrow’s interconnected world without depleting our most essential resource — water.