US Cities Eye AI Data Center Limits as Study Flags Water Risks
In brief Cities in Texas, North Carolina, Kentucky, and New Jersey have pursued bans or moratoriums on data centers. Power plants serving data centers in seven states withdraw about 3.4 trillion gallons of freshwater annually.
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Key Facts
- Fact 1: Power plants serving data centers in seven states withdraw about 3.4 trillion gallons of freshwater annually.
- Fact 2: At least 75 proposed projects worth about $130 billion faced local opposition in early 2026.
- Fact 3: Those plants withdraw about 3.4 trillion gallons of freshwater annually, equal to 10.4 million acre-feet.
- Fact 4: That exceeds California’s average annual urban water demand of 8 million acre-feet and is about 12 times the combined annual water use of Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Washington, D.C., according to the study.
In brief Cities in Texas, North Carolina, Kentucky, and New Jersey have pursued bans or moratoriums on data centers. Power plants serving data centers in seven states withdraw about 3.4 trillion gallons of freshwater annually.
At least 75 proposed projects worth about $130 billion faced local opposition in early 2026. Cities across the U.S. are restricting AI data center development as communities raise concerns about water supplies, electricity costs, and land use.
(Original synthesis pending human/AI review — generated by the stub provider by selecting real sentences from the source material, not by writing new analysis or commentary.)
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