Data Center Country

By Thad Plumley

Some people love that their home is located in farm country. Others look out front doors and windows at the striking beauty of the mountain regions and smile.

Me? My home in central Ohio is data center country.

Ohio is fourth in the United States with more than 200 data centers from 51 operators. Central Ohio, my home as well as the headquarters of the National Ground Water Association, has 129 of them.

According to the POWERGRID International Newsletter, Ohio was one of 15 states responsible for 80% of the national data center load in 2023. The only thing surprising me about that is Ohio needed the help of 14 other states.

They’re everywhere. Giant warehouses. Nearly windowless. Flat colors. They’re definitely never winning any architectural awards. The Guggenheim Museum, they are not.

They’re also not going anywhere.

Some people have declared war on them and want them to disappear. Among the complaints is a negative impact on natural resources, groundwater in particular.

There is no doubt they impact resources. The U.S. Department of Energy reported data centers consume 10 to 50 times the energy per unit floor space of a typical commercial office building.

Regardless, hyperscale data centers—the massive facilities that process and store information for artificial intelligence—are still going to hold ribbon cuttings and groundbreakings because the explosion in AI technology isn’t slowing down.

So, the question isn’t how to stop them, but how can construction be done in a responsible manner.

That’s not an easy one. The answer may still be in development. But there are promising trends.

Loudoun Water, a water utility company in Ashburn, Virginia, has a reclaimed water program that delivers treated wastewater effluent to customers, including huge data centers. It delivered 736 million gallons in 2024.

That’s how you positively impact the natural resources around you. It’s also not an isolated incident.

Amazon Web Services reached a 25-year agreement with the town of Hermiston, Oregon, on a managed aquifer recharge project that allows Amazon to use some of the water captured to cool its data center while the city will have more water for its residents in peak summer months.

As a groundwater professional, you know all about aquifer storage and recovery. I think it’s a tool that needs to be utilized more with data centers. The same goes for geothermal technology, something else you know all about.

Data centers are part of our landscape now. Your horizon may not look like mine, but there will eventually be one near you. When it happens and the talk starts, make sure you’re part of the conversation.

You know about the impact that can be made with aquifer storage and recovery systems and how a geothermal system can reduce water consumption and energy demands with improved HVAC performance. Help make sure the responsible use of groundwater takes place around you.

Doing so will help preserve the surroundings you’ve come to love.

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Thad Plumley is the editor of WWJ and the director of publications for the National Ground Water Association. He can be reached at tplumley@ngwa.org, or (800) 551-7379, ext. 1594.