Water Conservation And Reuse For Data Centers
By Michael Repel
The delivery and use of effluent in data center cooling applications
Increasing Needs
Because of our own decades-long mismanagement of our collective global water resources, we are now facing a global freshwater crisis where the demand for freshwater is predicted to exceed its supply by 40% by the year 2030.1
Directly coinciding with the water crisis timeline is the growing need for data center construction in order to accommodate artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and other Big Data and Internet of Things (IoT) processing. This demand is expected to triple by 2030 and will require a $6.7 trillion investment just to keep up with the projected demand for computational power.2
These two seemingly separate industries intersect with the fact that data centers place a significant demand on our water resources via their cooling towers. These cooling towers are needed to maintain safe operating temperatures on their servers and other equipment.
Consumption Metrics
The average data center consumes up to 300,000 gallons of water per day, which is approximately the same volume of use for 1,000 homes3, and demand is growing.
Google’s water usage for its data centers in The Dalles, Oregon, has grown three-fold over a five-year period. In 2021, it consumed 355 million gallons of water, which was 29% of the city’s total water demand. While these data centers are situated on the Columbia River, The Dalles has been in a multi-year drought cycle that has many local groups concerned about the company’s expansion in their region, as they believe it will have a deleterious impact on plant life, fish life, wildlife, and the community.4
It is calculated that large-scale data centers can use up to 5 million gallons of water per day, and up to 1.8 billion gallons annually.
Scientists at the University of California, Riverside have stated that each 100-word AI prompt (such as ChatGPT, Google AI, Grok) uses about one bottle of water (519 milliliters). With billions of AI prompts occurring every minute across the globe, the water usage at these data centers is multiplied significantly.5
As we progress further into the digital revolution, this demand will grow exponentially in all regions of the world, including those already facing water scarcity.
Responsible Use Of Resources
Setting the example for good water stewardship are Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft. Both companies were presented with the Global Industrial Water Reuse Champions Award by the International Desalination and Reuse Association (IDRA) in December of 2024 for their best-in-class water recycling and reuse programs.
AWS currently has 21 data center locations in Virginia and California that have been using recycled wastewater and plans to quadruple this amount. AWS has also announced its goal to consume 800 million gallons of recycled wastewater annually by the year 2030, thereby eliminating freshwater withdrawals of the same amount.
Microsoft is projected to reduce its water use intensity by 40% by 2030 and has expanded its use of recycled wastewater in Texas, Washington, California, and Singapore. Alternatively, it has been using rainwater to partially offset cooling and humidification needs in its data centers located in Ireland, the Netherlands, and Sweden.6
In the Great Lakes region, we hold approximately 20% of the world’s fresh surface water supply and 90% of all of the freshwater in America. However, only 1% of the Great Lakes Basin’s water is replenished with new water every year. Because this massive natural resource is vulnerable to misuse, its usage and diversions are regulated.7
With this in mind, good water stewardship and responsible water usage should remain at the forefront of the conversation when building new computing facilities.
New Facilities
In Chicago, the Illinois Quantum & Microelectronics Park (IQMP) is scheduled to break ground in 2025. Multiple tenants have already been chosen to occupy the 128-acre campus, which is on the 440-acre former U.S. Steel South Works site that is situated on the shoreline of Lake Michigan.
It has been stated that the IQMP will feature advanced water use and wastewater treatment technologies and will operate in a closed-loop system that will not draw freshwater resources from Lake Michigan or the nearby Calumet River.8 If this is the case, then the question remains as to why a waterfront site was chosen or if it is even necessary for this development.
The IQMP website states in its FAQ section that, “While the final designs of the cooling system onsite are still under development, it is increasingly likely that there will not be a need to draw water from Lake Michigan or the Calumet River.”9
“Increasingly likely” is not a definitive answer and water advocates in the region also want to know how such a large campus will sustain water usage beyond just that of quantum computer’s closed-loop system.8 The most logical answer to this question is that there would be a metered connection to Chicago’s existing water supply system.
While the standard water usage needs for the 128-acre campus itself may not prove to be burdensome for the city’s water system, there still isn’t a final cooling system design, and this system will need to obtain its water from one source or another. Furthermore, it should be stated that although minimal, closed-loop cooling systems are known to need access to make-up water, these systems still lose water through evaporation, leaks on seals and fittings, blowdown, and bleed-off or flushing to remove contaminants, impurities, and deposits.
The City of Chicago had previously discussed plans to supply recycled wastewater to IQMP, but this was deemed unfeasible for the initial build-out phase. Both the city and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) continue to explore the viability of using recycled wastewater for future site development.
Water policy expert Rachel Havrelock, who is also the founder of the Freshwater Lab, states that she is very invested in water reuse. For her, the IQMP represents an opportunity for this to happen at scale.
10th Ward Alderman Peter Chico is also committed to utilizing recycled wastewater at IQMP and has presented a water reuse plan to Governor Pritzker and the IQMP developers in an effort to explore the feasibility of its implementation.8
Personal Opinion And Alternative Solutions
My concerns about delivering reclaimed water to IQMP begin with the fact that the site is 6 linear miles from MWRD’s Calumet Water Reclamation Plant in Chicago.
If delivery mains need to be installed to supply IQMP with reclaimed water, they would need to be installed in the public way, which is already congested with multiple underground utilities. This would require about 9.2 miles of pipe, and at first glance, would likely involve the excavation of several major thoroughfares.
Due to the large size that is planned for this facility, it would likely require up to 5 million gallons of reclaimed water per day. While a 12-inch supply main would be sufficient in size to achieve this flow rate, the facility would require at least two separate but interconnected feeds in order to provide a redundancy in the event that one of them ever developed a break over their 9 mile spans. In the unlikely event that multiple breaks occurred at the same time and did so in places that the flow could not be directed around, the IQMP campus would be unable to cool itself, and possibly be rendered useless until such a time as the repairs could be completed.
From my perspective, I believe there is a better option that can be presented here.
After reviewing the Google satellite layer of the MWRD’s Calumet Water Reclamation Plant, I identified several swathes of undeveloped land bordering the plant along 130th Street to the south, along Cottage Grove Avenue to the east, and along the railroad tracks to the west. I began to measure these land masses and they totaled approximately 5,117,225 sq. ft., or 117.5 acres, which is just under the proposed IQMP campus size.
A two- or three-story facility on this same footprint could double or triple the available square footage, and the construction of multi-story data centers are quickly becoming the norm.10 This space could be further maximized by increasing the width of the upper floors with cantilevered beams.
Furthermore, the Calumet Water Reclamation Plant has an output capacity of between 354 and 430 million gallons of wastewater per day, thus making the undeveloped land surrounding it an ideal site for the construction of mid- to large-sized data center.
The plant also has an electrical substation located on its property. Access to this existing substation can accelerate the data center's development schedule by providing a dedicated stepped-down power source that will provide a reliable power supply to the data center once completed.
The concept of placing a data center on or near a wastewater treatment plant is a solution that can also work elsewhere.
Similar to my Chicago example, Queens, New York, has approximately 510,821 sq. ft. of undeveloped land in close proximity to the Bowery Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant. This land surrounds the La Guardia Airport (LGA) Discount Parking Lot along 45th St, 19th Ave., and Hazen St., and could also potentially accommodate a data center site.
The Bowery Bay plant has an output capacity of 150 million gallons of wastewater a day.11 Because the available wastewater output would likely exceed the cooling tower input requirements of a data center on built on a 510,821 sq. ft. footprint, I began to consider other options, the first of which was building the data center over the plant itself; the second of which was to simply build on the combined area of undeveloped land and above the LGA Discount Parking Lot in order to leave it operational.
Including the parking lot in the data center footprint would increase its size to 837,816 sq. ft., or 19.23 acres, thus making it more feasible for a large-scale data center. If the design called for two stories over the lot, there would be approximately 1,675,632 sq. ft. of available space and could potentially house the data and IT requirements of the neighboring airport and Rikers Island correctional facility as well.
For the purpose of delivering treated wastewater, I am opposed to introducing long runs of underground supply pipe to the public way in urban areas that are already congested with utilities and believe that the shortest possible runs are a better choice.
With regard to the IQMP, I think it would be a far better idea to just build it on the MWRD Calumet Water Reclamation Plant property.
If the plant property is not feasible for this application, then perhaps it should be considered as a potential site for another data center.
Choosing New Sites For Data Center Construction
Before a site location is determined for a new data center in any locale worldwide, the maximum daily water consumption should be calculated in the preconstruction planning phase. Once established, the data center's demand for water should then be measured against the effluent outflow from a master list of wastewater treatment plants in the region.
Once suitable matches are found where the treatment plants’ daily outflows meet or exceed the data center’s required daily consumption, the developers can begin narrowing down their choices for a building site.
Adding a column to the list of treatment plants that identifies plants with electrical substations on or near their facility that can provide a dedicated power supply to a data center could further help determine prime locations for development.
Although it would not likely be a problem in rural areas, highly congested urban areas may not have any available undeveloped land near their wastewater facilities that a data center could be built on.
In these instances where you cannot build alongside a wastewater treatment plant, then perhaps consideration should be given to building on the facility’s grounds, or even above them, as a majority of these wastewater plants are composed of low-elevation buildings.
This overhead facility design could also confine, capture, and redirect unpleasant odors to air scrubbers.
If footings and columns are placed in such a manner where they do not interfere with plant operation, the data center could be placed above a majority of the footprint of the treatment plant.
Utilizing Y-shaped columns made from steel reinforced concrete would support the building’s overhead structure while simultaneously reducing the amount of columns and footings necessary to support its load.
Project timelines could then be condensed by delivering and installing prefabricated beam and deck members and modular components.
In a best-case scenario and provided there is a good project manager and a well-coordinated site plan, most of the construction activities could proceed with minimum disruption to the plant’s day-to-day operations.
Operators at wastewater facilities with outdoor ponds that use naturally occurring sunlight for treatment and disinfection may not think that overhead construction is a good idea, even when no other alternatives exist. However, partnering with a data center could be just the opportunity needed to generate the revenue required to upgrade to closed-vessel UV disinfection systems, membrane bioreactors, and other technologies where it is feasible.
Conclusion
As we continue to advance into the digital age, we must find a balance between progress and conservation as new technologies will always require the consumption of existing resources. These resources are finite, and at times, becoming scarce.
A 21st century society can meet its growing computational demands in an environmentally responsible way by utilizing existing wastewater treatment and electrical infrastructure to meet the cooling and power demands of new data center construction.
Through proper planning and research, legislators, public works officials, and construction professionals now have new options to consider when choosing site locations for future data center developments.
Or perhaps it’s time to usher in a new era of combined wastewater plant/data center mixed-use facilities.
It is my hope that the information provided in this article can be used for our collective advancement and prolong the sustainability of the natural resources that we depend on.
References
- GCEW. (2023). Turning The Tide: A call to Collective Action. Paris: Global Commission on the Economics of Water.
- McKinsey & Company. (2025, April 28). The cost of compute: A $7 trillion race to scale data centers. Retrieved from McKinsey: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunications/our-insights/the-cost-of-compute-a-7-trillion-dollar-race-to-scale-data-centers
- Copley, M. (2022, August 30). Data centers, backbone of the digital economy, face water scarcity and climate risk. Retrieved from NPR: https://www.npr.org/2022/08/30/1119938708/data-centers-backbone-of-the-digital-economy-face-water-scarcity-and-climate-ris
- Rogoway, M. (2023, Feb 22). Google’s water use is soaring in The Dalles, records show, with two more data centers to come. Retrieved from Oregon Live: https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2022/12/googles-water-use-is-soaring-in-the-dalles-records-show-with-two-more-data-centers-to-come.html3
- EESI. (2025, June 25). Data Centers and Water Consumption. Retrieved from Environmental and Energy Study Institute: https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/data-centers-and-water-consumption
- WateReuse. (2024, December 13). Amazon Web Services & Microsoft Win 2024 Global Industrial Water Reuse Champions Award. Retrieved from WateReuse: https://watereuse.org/amazon-web-services-microsoft-win-2024-global-industrial-water-reuse-champions-award/
- Alliance for the Great Lakes. (n.d.). The Great Lakes Compact. Retrieved from Alliance for the Great Lakes: https://greatlakes.org/issues/defending-the-great-lakes-compact/
- Freitag, C. (2025, August 4). Chicago’s “Quantum Prairie” Promises New Era of Great Lakes Technology and Water Use. Retrieved from Circle of Blue: https://www.circleofblue.org/2025/technology/chicagos-quantum-prairie-promises-new-era-of-great-lakes-technology-and-water-use/
- IQMP. (n.d.). FAQs. Retrieved from Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park: https://iqmp.org/faqs/
- Data Centers Today. (2022, May 18). The Multistory Data Center—Current Trends Behind “Building Up”. Retrieved from Data Centers Today: https://blog.vantage-dc.com/2022/05/18/the-multistory-data-center-current-trends-behind-building-up/#:~:text=Until%20as%20recently%20as%20last,and%20even%20Oregon%20and%20Arizona
- City of New York. (2016, February 19). $3 Million Upgrade to the Bowery Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant to Substantially Reduce Nuisance Odors in Astoria and Nearby Communities. Retrieved from NYC.gov: https://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/press_releases/16-008pr.shtml
About the Author
Michael Repel has 26 years experience in public works and is currently a General Superintendent with the City of Chicago Department of Water Management. His academic background is in Construction Management and Business Administration, with certifications in Project Management. He is also a published musician and author. X: @Mike_Repel