In the first week of May, two data center developments, one in Arizona and another in Georgia, were caught taking public water without authorization.
In both cases, data center developers consumed water they were expressly prohibited from taking, in communities already experiencing water stress, and in both cases it was the residents who discovered it.
When residents complained of low water pressure in Georgia or dust control efforts in Arizona, they unknowingly tipped off regulators in areas fraught with depleting water supplies, and added to an escalating conflict over data center water use across the country…