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Last Update: 09/22/2026 at 11:34 PM EST
Data Center Water Reuse And Cooling
Coverage from RSP Engineers, The Salata Institute, and others
Data center expansion is making cooling water, wastewater reuse, and utility capacity central to U.
S. infrastructure planning. Operators and utilities are testing reclaimed-water networks, closed-loop systems, dry cooling, and thermal storage, while fragmented permits, indirect power-sector water use, infrastructure costs, and local approval remain unresolved.
Looking Back
136 Day Timeline
May 6
May 30
Jun 20
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Aug 28
Sep 18
History
09/19/2026
The story has shifted from evaluating cooling technologies to emphasizing data center growth as a system-level planning challenge for municipal water, wastewater, and utility capacity. New Columbus usage data and Chicago-area reuse proposals sharpen the scale of infrastructure needs and local approval constraints.
08/04/2026
The story now places greater emphasis on wastewater reuse as the leading cooling response, with a more concrete Columbus proposal and EPA guidance shaping how projects may proceed. It also adds a clearer set of operational, environmental, and public-health constraints around reuse.
All Articles32 articles
Important
RSP Engineers describes reclaimed-water cooling systems for data centers, including treatment, dedicated piping, storage, permitting, and backup supplies at project sites.
9/6/2026 • Water & Cooling • General
Harvard researchers estimate large U.S. data centers use 300 billion liters of water yearly, mostly from electricity generation rather than facility cooling.
7/13/2026 • Water & Cooling • General
Columbus, Ohio released cooling-water figures for local data centers, reporting about 1.26 billion gallons annually and projected Intel demand through 2031-2032.
7/10/2026 • Water & Cooling • General
EPA WRAP 2.0 and state-by-state reuse rules are increasingly shaping data center cooling and water recycling plans in multiple U.S. states.
6/5/2026 • Water & Cooling • General
DC E-WISE ranks cooling configurations for a 54 MW Phoenix colocation data center, showing energy versus onsite water priorities can change preferred designs.
6/12/2026 • Water & Cooling • General
Water sourcing and cooling wastewater disposal decisions for data centers determine which CWA, SDWA, NPDES, and state reuse approvals apply and affect project timelines.
5/12/2026 • Permitting & Regulation • General
Researchers Andrew Chien and Wedan Emmanuel Gnigba modeled Cold UTES for data centers in Virginia, Arizona, and Texas, finding up to 11 percent more IT power capacity.
6/24/2026 • Water & Cooling • General
A climate study projects reduced operability of air free cooling in data centers through mid-century, with the strongest increases in the tropics and the southeastern United States.
6/13/2026 • Water & Cooling • General
Katherine Graham at Georgia Tech is studying microbial risks from treated wastewater reuse for data center cooling towers in Georgia to support community health as AI-driven hyperscale growth accelerates.
5/27/2026 • Water & Cooling • General
Columbus Water & Power, with plans for spring 2027 procurement, explored using recycled water from the Southerly Treatment Plant for nearby data center cooling instead of potable water.
7/13/2026 • Water & Cooling • General
Columbus Water & Power reported data center water use of about 1.26 billion gallons over 12 months and outlined treatment-plant upgrades and recycled-water planning through 2032.
7/6/2026 • Water & Cooling • General
The Northeast-Midwest Institute briefed policymakers on Great Lakes data center buildout impacts for water use, citing utility planning needs and Great Lakes Compact reporting rules.
6/3/2026 • Water & Cooling • General
University of Illinois researchers proposed aquifer thermal energy storage for reducing data-center cooling energy and water consumption in the United States.
7/29/2026 • Water & Cooling • General
U.S. water utilities face capacity and planning challenges as hyperscale data centers depend on public water and cooling-related design choices.
6/26/2026 • Water & Cooling • General
Microsoft, Equinix, Google, Nebius, AWS, and Fortum expand data center waste-heat recovery in Finland, Sweden, and Ireland under EU monitoring rules.
5/23/2026 • Water & Cooling • General
Vertiv researchers published a climate-mapped assessment showing compressor-less data center cooling options are constrained by outdoor temperatures and thermal differential in most major North American markets.
5/14/2026 • Water & Cooling • General
UIC hosted a Chicago conference where speakers evaluated treated wastewater effluent reuse for data center cooling amid ecosystem, permitting, and brine-disposal tradeoffs.
5/13/2026 • Water & Cooling • General
EPA published guidance for data center water planning in the United States, focusing on cooling-driven water demand, permitting pathways, and reclaimed-water reuse.
5/11/2026 • Water & Cooling • General
The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago is considering redirecting treated Calumet wastewater for data center cooling in the Chicago area.
8/4/2026 • Water & Cooling • General
Ohio Chamber Research Foundation released a report on data center water use in Columbus and Cincinnati-Dayton, projecting 2030 cooling demand and identifying stormwater and infrastructure readiness as primary constraints.
6/9/2026 • Water & Cooling • General
Freshwater Lab and Great Lakes advocates warn Illinois data-center cooling water demand will strain Lake Michigan supplies and call for wastewater reuse planning.
5/22/2026 • Water & Cooling • General
Rachel Havrelock and Andrea Densham say Chicago-area data centers using millions of gallons daily for cooling require wastewater reuse planning in Illinois.
5/22/2026 • Water & Cooling • General
On May 13, Senators Ben Ray Luján and Katie Britt introduced the Advancing Water Reuse Act, proposing federal tax incentives for onsite water recycling, including at data center facilities.
5/21/2026 • Water & Cooling • General
Joliet approved the Joliet Technology Center in Illinois, using capped water limits and closed-loop cooling assumptions amid evolving gray-water regulations.
5/18/2026 • Water & Cooling • General
Marquette University and WEC Energy Group discussed closed-loop cooling, indirect power-sector water use, and Wisconsin public opposition at the Wisconsin Tech Summit in Oshkosh.
5/6/2026 • Water & Cooling • General
The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago is exploring reclaimed wastewater sales for data center cooling after approving industrial reuse opportunities last year in the Chicago area.
9/18/2026 • Water & Cooling • General
Fluix and TenHats are testing software in Knoxville, Tennessee, to coordinate server workloads and cooling, with projected HVAC energy savings of 10% to 25%.
7/30/2026 • Water & Cooling • General
Data4 highlights lifecycle findings that show data center water footprints vary by country, mainly due to electricity generation and local water stress.
7/28/2026 • Water & Cooling • General
Data center cooling remains dominated by evaporative systems, while liquid cooling adoption grows as water and power constraints shape design choices.
6/19/2026 • Water & Cooling • General
District energy heat recovery is highlighted for data centers as interconnection queues remain long and liquid cooling enables waste heat reuse in the U.S.
6/9/2026 • Water & Cooling • General
Interesting
Johnson Controls released a reference design guide for absorption chillers in data centers that use on site power waste heat to reduce cooling electricity demand.
7/28/2026 • Water & Cooling • General
Additional
Open Compute Project heat reuse guidance focuses on local policy and end-user connections needed to scale data center waste heat in Paris, Stockholm, Colorado, and Stavanger.
5/20/2026 • Policy & Utility Planning • General