AI data centers now draw billions of gallons from American water systems, and an advocacy group is warning that local households could end up paying for the pipes, plants, and pumps built to serve them.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a federal research lab, estimated in a 2024 report that U.S. data centers directly consumed about 17 billion gallons of water in 2023. That is roughly triple the 5.6 billion gallons used about a decade earlier. USAFacts used the Environmental Protection Agency’s estimate of 300 gallons per household per day to put the 2023 figure in perspective and found it matches what about 155,000 homes use in a year.
That number covers only water used inside the buildings, mostly for cooling. Natural gas, coal, and nuclear plants also use water to make the steam that spins their turbines, so the electricity AI data centers pull from the grid carries its own water cost. Researchers call that indirect use. The lab estimated it at 211 billion gallons in 2023, about 12 times the direct amount, and projected that direct use could double or even quadruple by 2028.
A single large facility can use up to 5 million gallons a day, according to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute. The Conversation reported that one Iowa data center consumed 1 billion gallons in 2024, enough to supply all of the state’s homes for five days. It also reported that Google disclosed using more than 6 billion gallons in 2023 to cool its data centers, and that company disclosures do not consistently count the indirect water behind their electricity. Exact figures are hard to come by because companies decide what to publish.
The water comes from the same public systems that serve households. Bluefield Research found that more than 97% of the water used by major data center operators is purchased from municipal drinking water systems. That means AI data centers rely on the same treatment plants, storage tanks, and pipes as neighborhoods.
Water was already getting more expensive. Food & Water Watch, an environmental advocacy group, reported on October 6 that household water bills rose about 62% over the past decade, outpacing inflation, grocery prices, and income growth. The group collected rates from 500 of the largest community water systems, which serve 155 million people. Bluefield Research separately found that combined water and sewer bills in 50 major cities rose 24.2% between 2020 and 2025. The Environmental Protection Agency considers households that spend 3% to 4.5% of income on water and sewer service to carry a high water burden.
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Food & Water Watch warned that data center growth could require billions of dollars in new water infrastructure, potentially leaving local customers with part of the bill. In Bloomberg’s reporting on the findings, Grant said her group has not yet identified a community where data centers have demonstrably raised residential water bills.
Where AI data centers cluster, the demand shows up in regional planning. More than 100 data centers in central Ohio already consume millions of gallons daily, according to NBC4, and the Central Ohio Regional Water Study projects that figure could climb to around 70 million gallons a day by 2040.
Columbus, Ohio, is testing how a city might respond. Columbus Water and Power filed a proposal on October 26 for a surcharge on commercial customers whose water use spikes well above typical levels, a group that includes data centers. A customer would qualify by using at least 100 CCF a month, a billing unit equal to 100 cubic feet of water, and reaching a peak of 2.0 times its typical usage. Councilman Christopher Wyche, who chairs the Public Utilities and Sustainability Committee, said the city wants to identify customers whose demand regularly strains the system. Officials say the city still has to maintain treatment, pumping, storage, and distribution capacity to serve those peaks.
If the plan passes, shifting revenue to the surcharge would make standard water rates for residential and small business customers about 1.6% lower than they would otherwise be, city officials say, and could help limit future increases as heavy users grow. The proposal does not settle whether data centers would pay more for electricity, and the city has not said residents would see immediate savings. Council members have also pointed out that many of the region’s data centers sit outside Columbus while drawing on water plants that city taxpayers fund.
Congress is weighing a response. House Energy and Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie announced the committee would examine a draft Water Cost Accountability Act, which would let states that receive State Revolving Loan Fund grants prohibit public water systems from charging customers extra when data centers connect or expand infrastructure. A committee spokesperson said the draft is aimed at ensuring communities do not bear costs from data center water use. A related Ratepayer Protection Act, which targets electricity costs for households, was voted out of committee unanimously in July.
Utilities set rates, and rate structures decide how the cost of new capacity is split between large customers and every household on the system. The Columbus surcharge is one city’s proposed answer ahead of its November 12 public hearing, and AI data centers are expected to keep driving the questions that follow.
