Who Decides How Much Water AI Gets?
The short version: The Orbis maps how AI data centers in Texas, Virginia, and Utah guzzle millions of gallons a day while companies dodge disclosure and regulators shrug.
Our Take
Credit to The Orbis for doing the unglamorous work of asking who actually approved the water math on these builds. The most damning detail isn't a shocking new number — it's the non-answer. Texas officials asked operators for their water usage data and got silence or half-answers back. That's not a gap in reporting, that's a gap in oversight, and it should bother anyone whose utility bill or well water depends on the same aquifer a hyperscale campus is drawing from.
Virginia's Data Center Alley gets framed as the success story, and sure, it brought jobs and tax revenue. But cooling millions of square feet of servers isn't free, and "investment" doesn't show up on a water table's balance sheet. Utah adds the dry-climate wrinkle — evaporative cooling in a state already fighting over the Great Salt Lake is its own kind of decision nobody put to a public vote. The throughline across all three states is the same: permits get issued, incentives get signed, and the water and power tradeoffs get explained to the public only after concrete is poured.
If you want to see what's landed near you, check our facility map, and if your town is fighting one of these permit fights right now, our take-action page has where to start.
This is GridWatch the USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of The Orbis, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.