Part 3 of 13 in Thirteen Records. The long article, Data Centers Don’t Have an Environmental Record. They Have Thirteen of Them., rates thirteen kinds of environmental complaint against data centers. This series takes them one at a time.
I work at a local ISP in Northern Illinois and co-founded FD-IX, an internet exchange. I have no customer, vendor, or interconnection relationship with any facility or developer named here and no financial position in any of them beyond broad-market index funds. My industry grows with infrastructure investment in a general way, which is an indirect interest; the full disclosure is at the top of the complete article.
Water is the environmental claim with the widest spread between the national number and the local one. Nationally, data centers are a small user, about 0.045% of what crop irrigation withdraws. [7][8] Locally, a single campus can be the largest customer a water system has, and in Yorkville the campuses are arriving while the city is still building a pipeline to replace an aquifer being drawn down about twice as fast as it recharges. [9b]
Yorkville is the clearest test I found, because the numbers are on the record at every stage: 350,000 gallons a day presented to the council, 42,000 in the approved agreement, a corridor projection that lands slightly above the city’s Lake Michigan allocation by 2050, and a state law that requires no withdrawal permit for a private well. This post rates eight water supply claims, three of them Misattributed in opposite directions, and reads the Yorkville documents closely enough to say what the 350,000-to-42,000 change probably was and what the record does not settle.
How the ratings work. Each complaint below is stated the way it usually arrives at a hearing and rated on the scale the full article uses. Systemic: documented at compliant facilities across multiple geographies. Regional: real, but only under specific geographic or operational conditions. Isolated: documented at one or few facilities due to misconduct or atypical design. Exaggerated: the concern is real but the figures are permit ceilings or worst cases, not operating norms. Selective: a legitimate concern applied only to data centers, not to comparable land uses. Misattributed: the harm is real but the source, geography, or cause is wrong. Contested: a plausible mechanism exists but causal documentation at compliant facilities does not. Fabricated: no credible evidentiary basis exists. Where I say I found no record of something, that means a search of public sources through October 2026, not paid databases or records requests.
Water Supply
Claim: Data centers are draining the country’s water. Tier: Selective.
Data centers are a small water user at national scale, and national scale is the wrong unit for a siting decision. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s congressionally mandated 2024 report found U.S. data centers consumed about 17.4 billion gallons directly through on-site cooling in 2023. [7] U.S. crop irrigation withdrawals average 105.5 billion gallons per day, about 38.5 trillion gallons a year, under USGS’s current national estimate. [8] Data centers’ direct consumption is about 0.045% of that. The comparison has limits on both sides: the data center figure excludes water consumed generating the facility’s electricity, which on a thermoelectric-heavy grid can exceed on-site use; the agricultural figure is withdrawal, some of which returns to the basin; and neither is weighted for scarcity. U.S. golf courses used 1.63 million acre-feet for irrigation in 2024, about 531 billion gallons and roughly 30 times data centers’ direct use, according to GCSAA’s peer-reviewed national survey. [20] Treating data centers as a uniquely large national water consumer does not survive that comparison. Whether a given facility strains a given system is a different question.
Claim: Data centers strain local water supplies. Tier: Regional.
They can. Google’s Council Bluffs, Iowa location, the highest-withdrawal site in its own table, withdrew 1,410 million gallons in 2024 and consumed 1,010 million, about 3.9 and 2.8 million gallons a day. [9] In Newton County, Georgia, published figures for a single Meta facility disagree by a factor of five: the water authority’s director told The New York Times it uses about 10% of the county’s daily water, and WSB-TV reported about 102,000 gallons a day, about 2%. [29][10a] The Times reported the county on track for a water deficit by 2030, and the Lincoln Institute reported pending requests from new projects of up to 6 million gallons a day, more than double current county use. [29][10] These are genuine problems in specific places.
Claim: Phoenix’s water problem is coming here. The reverse claim: we’re next to the Great Lakes, so water isn’t an issue. Tier for both: Misattributed.
Both are wrong for the counties where this corridor’s buildout is concentrated. DeKalb County draws 100% of its water from groundwater and has no Lake Michigan connection. [9a] That characterizes the source, not any campus’s effect on it. The campus already running in the county gives the first local measurement. Meta reports its DeKalb data center withdrew 105 megaliters in 2024, about 76,000 gallons a day on average, and DeKalb’s city manager has described its cooling draw as up to 200,000 gallons a day. [10c] The city’s water agreement reserves 400,000 gallons a peak day for each of three tiers, up to 1.2 million gallons with all three. [10b] Yorkville draws from a deep sandstone aquifer that the Illinois Office of Water Resources found is being withdrawn about twice as fast as it recharges, which is why Yorkville, Oswego, and Montgomery are building a 30-mile, roughly $400 million pipeline to Lake Michigan water through the DuPage Water Commission, expected in Yorkville by summer 2028. [9b][9c][9d] That is a real constraint with different hydrology from a desert: a depleting confined aquifer, not river allocation or reservoir drawdown. A claim about DeKalb built on Maricopa County is not an honest argument. Neither is the claim that Great Lakes adjacency makes supply comfortable here.
Claim: Project Cardinal will draw 350,000 gallons of city water a day. Tier: Exaggerated. A superseded figure cited as the operative one.
Cooling design matters more than facility size. Evaporative towers reject heat by evaporating water and consume it continuously. Closed-loop air cooling recirculates a fixed charge of fluid and draws water mainly to fill and top off the loop. Yorkville is the clearest local test, because the numbers are on the record at every stage.
The city presented Project Cardinal at 350,000 gallons per day (gpd) at full build-out across 14 buildings in October 2025, up from 310,000 a month earlier, without naming the cooling method; officials called it “about half the usage of a residential subdivision” on a per-acre basis. [11a][11c] By the March 2026 approval the design was air-cooled closed loop. The Utility and Infrastructure Agreement sets an allocation of 42,000 gpd on an average day and 71,400 on a maximum day, and a memorandum of understanding approved 5-1 on June 23, 2026 restates the penalties: neither number is a shutoff, and usage above either is billed at twice the volumetric rate. [11o][11e] The memorandum calls the allocation “potable water” and does not divide domestic use from cooling. [11o]
| Project | Site | Initial figure | Approved limit | Homes equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Project Cardinal | 1,037 acres | 350,000 gpd, cooling method not stated in source | 42,000 gpd average day; 71,400 gpd maximum day; double-rate penalty above either | 141 homes |
| Project Steel | 540 to 550 acres, reported both ways | 130,000 gpd (September 2025) | 25,000 gpd average; roughly 42,400 to 42,500 gpd peak, air-cooled | 90 to 120 homes |
| CyrusOne | 228 acres | 500,000 gpd | 40,000 gpd maximum | Not separately reported |
Sources: [11a][11e][11f][11g][11h][11i][11r]. Homes-equivalent figures are the city’s and the reporting’s, not my derivation.
The 350,000 figure is no longer the operative one. The opposite reading, that Yorkville negotiated Cardinal’s water down by 88%, does not hold up well either. The city engineer’s March 2026 study lists Cardinal at 42,000 and 71,400 gpd in a table of developer estimates received August 29, 2025, six weeks before the 350,000 figure went to the council. [11r] The developer’s September 2025 memo calls its figures “domestic water usages” and its closed-loop makeup water “undetermined.” [11n] The sanitary district said in February 2026 that the projects’ cooling “now will not use water,” while noting it had received no plans. [11p] And in March 2026 Shaw Local described Cardinal as “trucking in its own water for a closed-loop system.” [11h] My reading of those documents, which the city has not confirmed, is that 42,000 gpd is the domestic component that was there all along, about 3,000 gallons a building a day, the scale of restrooms and kitchens. A closed-loop air-cooled system has no continuous evaporative demand; the water it needs is the initial fill and top-off, which the trucking account would cover. If that reading is right, the change from 350,000 is mostly the removal of evaporative cooling, not a negotiated cut. The memorandum calls the allocation potable water and does not divide domestic from cooling use, so the record does not settle it. [11o] Either way, 42,000 is an allocation with a price above it, not a forecast of draw, and the claim this tier rates is the municipal draw; total site water on the same accounting boundary is not on the record.
What moved instead of water is the other half of the record. Air cooling rejects the same heat with fans, which means more electricity for the same computing load and more mechanical noise at the property line, and air-cooled designs run hardest in the hottest hours, when neighbors are most likely to have windows open. Chandler’s planning staff tied rising neighborhood noise to the industry’s move from water-cooled to electrically cooled facilities. [36a] Northern Illinois has more cool-weather economizer hours than Phoenix, which makes the trade more plausible here, but calling it favorable would take the marginal-emissions profile for the hours cooling load rises and the modeled sound power for the approved design, and neither is in the approval record. A community that negotiates water down should ask what the noise and power numbers did in exchange. Yorkville’s continuous noise monitoring condition is that question in permit form.
Residents dispute that the process worked at all. In April and May 2026 a resident group sued the city over the Cardinal and Steel approvals, alleging Yorkville rezoned more than 1,000 acres without a noise analysis, a traffic study, or an analysis of cooling water consumption, and without mailing notice to owners within 500 feet. [11l] The allegations are unadjudicated. If they hold, the water figures above were settled without the study that would have grounded them, and the city’s system-capacity study arrived as a presentation on the night the council approved Cardinal’s utility agreement. [11r] The record shows the approved allocations are lower than the figures first presented. It does not show whether that came from the process working or from design choices the developers would have made anyway.
Claim: The data center corridor will outrun Yorkville’s water. Tier: Contested. A forecast built on developer estimates.
Individual allocations are the wrong unit, here the same way they are for generators in Loudoun County, the subject of the previous post in this series. As of March 2026, developers had 12 projects covering 3,016 acres approved, under review, or in site inquiry along Yorkville’s Eldamain Corridor. [11h] The city’s engineer, in a study funded by the Cardinal and Steel developers, totals eight projected developments at about 98,400 gpd on an average day and 174,600 on a maximum day. [11r] With the city and every projected data center built out, average-day demand reaches a projected 3.66 million gallons by 2050, slightly above the city’s 3.566 million gallon Lake Michigan allocation. [11r] The study shows another 3.0 million gallons a day of physical pipeline capacity, but pipe capacity is not the allocation the demand is measured against; demand above 3.566 million gallons would need a larger allocation or another source, and the study does not say which. It found no significant system improvements needed for the data centers in the next three to ten years. [11r] It is a progress presentation built on developers’ August 2025 estimates, not a final report or metered use, and it replaced a June 2025 city projection of about 200 million gallons a year that predated the design changes. [11j]
Claim: Data centers will pull from the aquifer our wells draw on. Tier: Contested. Through city wells in the interim, by the city’s own account; a private well is permitted by state law and proposed by no one; the effect on residents’ wells is unmeasured.
A resident at the Kane County line raised this in March 2025, noting that many neighbors are on private wells. The city administrator answered that none of the nearby data centers would use well water, “neither their own or the City wells,” and that they “are not anticipated to begin operation until well after we have converted to the Lake Michigan source.” [11w] Three months later he told the council something broader: if data centers are built before the pipeline is complete, “they will use Yorkville’s well water in the interim.” [11j] That is city well water from the same aquifer, under the municipal allocation. No Yorkville data center is operating yet, and Lake Michigan water is due in summer 2028, so the interim has not started. [11z] No proposal I read includes a private well. But the municipal allocation is not the only way to get water on a 1,037-acre parcel. Illinois’s Water Use Act of 1983 governs groundwater quantity under a rule of reasonable use and contains no withdrawal permit outside the Lake Michigan allocation system. A new withdrawal expected to exceed 100,000 gallons on any day requires notice to the county Soil and Water Conservation District, a 30-day review, and registration; restriction comes only after an investigation finds a substantial groundwater decline. [9e] The well needs a construction permit, which governs how it is built, not how much it pumps. [9f] None of that is a cap. None of Cardinal’s three agreements prohibits a private well. [11x][11o] The city code requires connection to city water for parcels “within a subdivision,” and whether that reaches the Cardinal parcel is not answered by the record I read. [11b]
Claim: Data centers are why our water rates are going up 20% a year. Tier: Misattributed.
Yorkville approved residential rate increases of about 20% a year for five years to pay for the Lake Michigan pipeline. [9d][11a] The pipeline exists because the aquifer is being drawn down faster than it recharges, and the city committed to it in 2021, before Project Cardinal existed. [9b] Whether a large industrial customer then raises or lowers residential rates depends on the industrial tariff, how fixed costs are allocated, and whether serving the load takes capacity the pipeline was not already sized for. Yorkville has published no cost-of-service study, so this post states the mechanism and not a direction. Newton County shows it can run the wrong way: the mayor of Mansfield told the Times that rates there are set to rise 33% over two years alongside data center growth. [29] What the record does show is that Yorkville charges data centers connection fees for a share of Lake Michigan supply, storage, and backup well costs: about $3.58 million for Project Cardinal and $1.98 million for Project Steel. [11r]
Claim: QTS secretly tapped Fayette County’s water. Tier: Misattributed. A metering failure reported as an unauthorized connection.
QTS’s 615-acre campus in Fayette County, Georgia drew water through two connections that went unbilled for an estimated four to fifteen months, depending on whether the estimate comes from the county or the company, until residents complaining about low pressure surfaced the gap. The county billed nearly $150,000 for more than 29 million gallons, and QTS paid. [13] The “unauthorized connection” framing came from the county’s own May 2025 letter, which said one connection was installed “without the knowledge or inspection” of staff. County administrators later said the cause was a missed meter reading during the county’s transition of about 33,000 meters to a new metering system, and that staff had inspected the installation. [13a] In May 2026 the county conceded its letter “was unclear.” [13b] The water system director’s description of QTS is the part that bears on enforcement: “They’re our largest customer, and we have to be partners.” [13] Whether that posture changed any decision is not in the record; the county billed the full amount and QTS paid it.
What to ask for. Put the resource in the contract, not just the intent. An allocation with a billing-cycle average, a single-day threshold, and financial penalties for exceeding either is enforceable in a way a sustainability commitment is not. Yorkville’s agreement has that form, and it is a price signal rather than a ceiling: neither threshold is a shutoff, and use above either is billed at twice the rate. [11o] A council that wants a hard limit has to write one, with interruption authority, and say so. Require metered reporting to the utility on a schedule and make the reports public, since Fayette County’s gap was found by neighbors noticing pressure, not by meters, and DeKalb’s agreement with Meta makes the campus’s consumption confidential at Meta’s discretion. [13a][10b] If the parcel could support a private well, ask whether the agreement prohibits one, because the Water Use Act requires notice and registration but no state withdrawal permit. [9e] Rockford’s October 2026 staff draft, not yet adopted, shows the language: “No water well or sanitary sewer system will be constructed or used for the Data Center operations.” [9g] And ask for the corridor projection against the allocation, not against pipe capacity: Yorkville’s came from the city’s own engineer, funded by two of the developers, and no individual approval evaluates it. [11r]
What moved when the water went down. A facility that cuts water use by switching to air cooling raises electricity draw and fan noise. A community that wins a water concession should ask what the noise and power numbers did in exchange. That trade is the subject of the noise post in this series.
This is part 3 of 13 in Thirteen Records, a series that takes the long article Data Centers Don’t Have an Environmental Record. They Have Thirteen of Them. one topic at a time. Previous: diesel generators. Next: water quality, where the two best-known contamination cases are in court and neither proves what it is cited for.
Cover photo: Brian Stansberry / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Citations
[7] Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, “2024 United States Data Center Energy Usage Report” (LBNL-2001637), December 2024. https://eta-publications.lbl.gov/sites/default/files/2024-12/lbnl-2024-united-states-data-center-energy-usage-report.pdf (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261025160205/https://eta-publications.lbl.gov/sites/default/files/2024-12/lbnl-2024-united-states-data-center-energy-usage-report.pdf)
[8] U.S. Geological Survey, Medalie, L. et al., “Water use across the conterminous United States, water years 2010-20,” Chapter D, National Integrated Water Availability Assessment, Professional Paper 1894, January 2025. Crop irrigation withdrawals averaged 105,497 million gallons per day (CONUS) for water years 2010-2020. Supersedes the 2015 Circular 1441 estimate (118 Bgal/d) as the current national modeled estimate. https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/pp1894D (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261024150117/https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/pp1894D)
[9] Google (Alphabet), 2025 Environmental Report, covering calendar 2024, “Alphabet’s Schedule of Water Use by Data Center Location For the Year Ended December 31 2024 (million gallons),” p. 114, and the environmental data table, p. 110: Council Bluffs, IA, withdrawal 1,410.3, discharge 400.1, consumption 1,010.2; next highest Mayes County, OK, withdrawal 1,108.3. Daily figures are my division by 365. Self-reported. https://www.gstatic.com/gumdrop/sustainability/google-2025-environmental-report.pdf (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261025155921/https://www.gstatic.com/gumdrop/sustainability/google-2025-environmental-report.pdf). Also summarized by MOST Policy Initiative, “Data Center Water Use,” Science Note, April 8, 2026: https://mostpolicyinitiative.org/science-note/data-center-water-use/ (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20260908212218/https://mostpolicyinitiative.org/science-note/data-center-water-use/)
[9a] University of Illinois Extension, “The groundwater guide: Where our water comes from and the challenges communities face,” Everyday Environment series, May 2025. DeKalb, McHenry, Boone, and Winnebago counties identified as 100% dependent on groundwater aquifers for drinking water. https://extension.illinois.edu/blogs/everyday-environment/2025-05-08-groundwater-guide-where-our-water-comes-and-challenges (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20260514140536/https://extension.illinois.edu/blogs/everyday-environment/2025-05-08-groundwater-guide-where-our-water-comes-and-challenges)
[9b] City of Yorkville, “New Water Source,” official city website. Illinois Office of Water Resources finding that the region’s deep aquifer is being withdrawn roughly twice as fast as it recharges; City Council vote (2021) to switch to Lake Michigan water via the DuPage Water Commission; an earlier city estimate of $90 million or more for Yorkville’s cost, since superseded (see [9d]); funded in part through phased water rate increases beginning September 2022. https://www.yorkville.il.us/811/New-Water-Source (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261024150620/https://www.yorkville.il.us/811/New-Water-Source)
[9c] Pipeline & Gas Journal, “$400-MM WaterLink pipeline advances across Illinois,” September 4, 2026: “a nearly $400-MM regional water pipeline,” 30 miles, serving Montgomery, Oswego and Yorkville; “Construction began in December 2025”; “scheduled for completion in 2028.” https://pgjonline.com/news/2026/september/400-mm-waterlink-pipeline-advances-across-illinois (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261025162310/https://pgjonline.com/news/2026/september/400-mm-waterlink-pipeline-advances-across-illinois). Village of Oswego, “New Water Source”: cost shares Oswego 35.36%, Montgomery 24.42%, Yorkville 40.22%; switchover targeted for 2028, moved from 2027; Illinois Office of Water Resources: “water is being withdrawn twice as fast as it is being replenished.” https://www.oswegoil.org/government/departments/public-works/water/new-water-source (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20260114044626/https://www.oswegoil.org/government/departments/public-works/water/new-water-source)
[9d] Shaw Local (Kendall County Now), “Yorkville’s $170 million federal EPA loan for Lake Michigan water project stuck in limbo,” June 17, 2026: $224.4 million Yorkville project cost; $170 million WIFIA loan signed by EPA but not closed; regional project about $400 million for a 30-mile transmission main; Lake Michigan water expected in Yorkville by summer 2028; 20% annual rate increases over five years. https://shawlocal.com/kendall-county-now/2026/06/17/yorkvilles-170-million-federal-epa-loan-for-lake-michigan-water-project-stuck-in-limbo/ (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20260831050426/https://shawlocal.com/kendall-county-now/2026/06/17/yorkvilles-170-million-federal-epa-loan-for-lake-michigan-water-project-stuck-in-limbo/)
[9e] Illinois Water Use Act of 1983, 525 ILCS 45, as amended by Public Act 96-0222 (effective January 1, 2010). Sec. 4: “high capacity” withdrawals are those “equal to or in excess of 100,000 gallons during any 24-hour period”; “reasonable use” means “the use of water to meet natural wants and a fair share for artificial wants.” Sec. 5: notice to the local Soil and Water Conservation District “before construction of the well begins” for a new point of withdrawal reasonably expected to exceed 100,000 gallons on any day; district review of the effect on other users with the Illinois State Water Survey and State Geological Survey, completed within 30 days and made public. Sec. 5.1: district may “recommend to the Department of Agriculture that the Department restrict the quantity of water” from high-capacity wells after an on-site investigation finds a substantial groundwater decline. Sec. 5.1(a): a land occupier with a high-capacity well “shall register that point of withdrawal with the District.” Sec. 5.3: owners of high-capacity wells, intakes, and public water supplies “shall participate in the Illinois State Water Survey’s Illinois Water Inventory Program.” The Act contains no withdrawal permit. https://ilga.gov/ftp/Public%20Acts/96/096-0222.htm (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20250330170455/https://ilga.gov/ftp/Public%20Acts/96/096-0222.htm)
[9f] 77 Ill. Adm. Code 920.130, Water Well Permit Requirements (Illinois Water Well Construction Code): “A permit to construct a new water well, modify an existing water well or seal an abandoned water well shall be obtained from the Department or approved local health department prior to start of work.” https://www.ilga.gov/ftp/JCAR/AdminCode/077/077009200001300R.html (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20250330081405/https://www.ilga.gov/ftp/JCAR/AdminCode/077/077009200001300R.html)
[9g] City of Rockford, Illinois, “Draft of Text Amendments for Data Centers,” Article 40-002-P, clean draft dated October 15, 2026 (Legistar matter 26-01252, laid over by the Code and Regulation Committee October 19, 2026; not adopted). Section 8(c), p. 5: “All water and sewer services for the Data Center will be provided by the public water system, except for water transported on site. No water well or sanitary sewer system will be constructed or used for the Data Center operations.” https://rockfordil.legistar1.com/rockfordil/attachments/13197a6d-c674-449d-8570-02e77a33b872.pdf (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261025032536/https://rockfordil.legistar1.com/rockfordil/attachments/13197a6d-c674-449d-8570-02e77a33b872.pdf)
[10] Jon Gorey, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Land Lines, “Data Drain: The Land and Water Impacts of the AI Boom,” October 17, 2025. Newton County: Meta facility at 500,000 gallons per day and 10% of county consumption (citing The New York Times, July 14, 2025); pending permit requests that “would use up to 6 million gallons of water per day, more than doubling what the entire county currently consumes.” https://www.lincolninst.edu/publications/land-lines-magazine/articles/land-water-impacts-data-centers/ (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261016043851/https://www.lincolninst.edu/publications/land-lines-magazine/articles/land-water-impacts-data-centers/)
[10a] Richard Elliot, WSB-TV Channel 2 Atlanta, “North Georgia neighbors say data center responsible for dirty well water,” May 27, 2026. Station reporting: Meta takes about 102,000 gallons of Newton County water a day, used in a closed system, about 2% of county water usage. Meta statement: commissioned groundwater study found no impact on residents. https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/north-georgia-neighbors-say-data-center-responsible-dirty-well-water/YERXGUYXHVAGPIAPQJ6ILVC4BQ/ (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20260715103535/https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/north-georgia-neighbors-say-data-center-responsible-dirty-well-water/YERXGUYXHVAGPIAPQJ6ILVC4BQ/)
[10b] City of DeKalb, Ordinance 2020-023, annexation and development agreement with Ventus Tech Services LLC (Project Ventus, Meta DeKalb Data Center), passed April 27, 2020, recorded with the DeKalb County Recorder as 2020003729; Exhibit G, Water Agreement. Sec. 5: “No consumption measures or limitations arising from such shortages shall apply to the Project, unless required by clear and critical public health conditions and applicable Law.” Confidentiality: “data and information related to Customer’s actual or projected consumption or usage of all or any portion of the Reservations shall be deemed Confidential Business Information,” not to be disclosed to any third party “without the prior written consent, and at the sole discretion of, Customer.” https://www.cityofdekalb.com/DocumentCenter/View/11090/Ord-2020-023-Passed-042720-Ventus-Annex-Dev-Agr (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261025151515/https://www.cityofdekalb.com/DocumentCenter/View/11090/Ord-2020-023-Passed-042720-Ventus-Annex-Dev-Agr). Resolution 2020-120, passed October 26, 2020, First Amendment to the Water Agreement with Goldframe LLC to correct a scrivener’s error: Exhibit B: “The Water capacity reservation for each Tier of the Project is 400,000 gallons per day”; peak daily volume 400,000, 800,000, and 1,200,000 gallons for Tiers I to III. https://www.cityofdekalb.com/DocumentCenter/View/12153/Res-2020-120-Passed-102620-Water-Agr-Facebook (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261025125713/https://www.cityofdekalb.com/DocumentCenter/View/12153/Res-2020-120-Passed-102620-Water-Agr-Facebook)
[10c] Meta, 2025 Environmental Data Index (fiscal 2024), “Water Withdrawal by Facility (in megaliters)”: DeKalb (IL) 0, 30, 55, and 105 for 2021 to 2024 (company source). https://sustainability.atmeta.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Meta_2025-Environmental-Data-Index.pdf (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261025160322/https://sustainability.atmeta.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Meta_2025-Environmental-Data-Index.pdf). Bear Savage and Jenna Dooley, WNIJ, November 24, 2025, reporting DeKalb City Manager Bill Nicklas that Meta uses “up to 200,000 gallons of water a day for their cooling process.” https://www.northernpublicradio.org/wnij-news/2025-11-24/public-can-weigh-in-on-proposal-for-500-acre-data-center-in-dekalb (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20260306120814/https://www.northernpublicradio.org/wnij-news/2025-11-24/public-can-weigh-in-on-proposal-for-500-acre-data-center-in-dekalb)
[11a] Shaw Local (Kendall County Now), “Yorkville says Project Cardinal data center water consumption projected now at 350,000 gallons daily,” October 17, 2025. https://www.shawlocal.com/kendall-county-now/2025/10/17/yorkville-says-project-cardinal-data-center-water-consumption-projected-now-at-350000-gallons-daily/ (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20260923145043/https://www.shawlocal.com/kendall-county-now/2025/10/17/yorkville-says-project-cardinal-data-center-water-consumption-projected-now-at-350000-gallons-daily/)
[11n] Burns & McDonnell (Gary Koons, Development Manager, for the Engineer of Record), Project Cardinal Water Usage Memo to the United City of Yorkville, September 5, 2025: “The draft values provided below are domestic water usages”; “We are looking to determine potential makeup water for a closed loop system but at this time is undetermined”; 1.8 peaking factor for maximum day; figures “planning level and subject to change.” Posted on the city’s Project Cardinal page. https://www.yorkville.il.us/DocumentCenter/View/11747 (archived: https://archive.org/details/project-cardinal-memo-water-2025-09-05, an unaltered copy uploaded October 25, 2026, because the Wayback Machine could not capture the city’s file)
[11c] WSPY News, “Yorkville approves engineering deal for data center water extensions,” October 2025. City Administrator Bart Olson; city officials’ statement that Project Cardinal’s original 350,000 gpd design is roughly half the per-acre water intensity of a residential subdivision. https://www.wspynews.com/news/local/yorkville-approves-engineering-deal-for-data-center-water-extensions/article_09a6145f-e0c3-4eda-ba4d-31f15f3d58a7.html (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20260908191705/https://www.wspynews.com/news/local/yorkville-approves-engineering-deal-for-data-center-water-extensions/article_09a6145f-e0c3-4eda-ba4d-31f15f3d58a7.html)
[11o] United City of Yorkville, City Council Packet, June 23, 2026, agenda item EDC 2026-31 (Project Cardinal, Pioneer Development LLC). Community Development Director’s memo dated June 3, 2026, packet pp. 369 to 371: Utility and Infrastructure Agreement and Development Agreement approved March 10, 2026 by Ordinance No. 2026-23 (executed copy, Section 4.1: the City “will provide water” at 42,000 gpd average day and 71,400 gpd maximum day, overuse billed at twice the volumetric rate; Section 3.6: HVO or biodiesel for generator testing; no well provision; https://www.yorkville.il.us/DocumentCenter/View/13590/Ordinance-2026-23—need-signed-agreements?bidId= (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261025151443/https://www.yorkville.il.us/DocumentCenter/View/13590/Ordinance-2026-23—need-signed-agreements?bidId=)); closing-notice deadline extension from July 1, 2026 to December 31, 2027. Draft Memorandum of Understanding (Pioneer Development redline dated May 21, 2026), packet pp. 378 to 381, Section 4.1 Water Allocation: “The City acknowledges that the provisions of adequate amounts of potable water is essential for the development of the Project”; “(Average Day) 42,000 gallons per day (Maximum Day) 71,400 gallons per day”; penalty “equal to two times the then-existing volumetric water rate on the difference between the actual average day and the estimated average day of 42,000 gallons for the entire billing cycle”; for any day over 71,400 gallons, the same double rate “until compliance with the water allocation standards are met or further improvements to the water service system are completed at the sole cost of the Developer.” Same packet, City Administrator memo dated June 18, 2026, p. 233, and Conditional Settlement Agreement and Releases, Bryan v. Yorkville, Kendall County Case No. 2025 CH 000028, from p. 239. https://www.yorkville.il.us/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/6803 (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261025162608/https://www.yorkville.il.us/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/6803). Adoption: Minutes of the Regular Meeting of the City Council, June 23, 2026 (as reproduced in the July 14, 2026 council packet): Ordinance 2026-43 approving the conditional settlement, roll call 5-1 (Corneils nay); Ordinance 2026-44 approving the first amendment to the annexation agreement, 6-1; Ordinance 2026-45 approving the memorandum of understanding, 5-1 (Corneils nay). https://www.yorkville.il.us/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/6824 (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261025162615/https://www.yorkville.il.us/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/6824)
[11p] WSPY News, “Air-cooled design reduces wastewater concerns for Yorkville projects,” March 10, 2026, reporting the Yorkville-Bristol Sanitary District’s February 2026 board meeting. Executive Director Cyrus McMains: “The cooling process systems approaches have been revised and now will not use water”; “This means that the data centers will only discharge sanitary waste to YBSD”; “The sanitary wastewater will be domestic strength or similar from other office buildings and homes”; “YBSD has still not received any plans from the prospective data centers.” https://www.wspynews.com/news/local/air-cooled-design-reduces-wastewater-concerns-for-yorkville-projects/article_ba7331c8-6c74-4ae4-9658-f851ba5c6951.html (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261025162525/https://www.wspynews.com/news/local/air-cooled-design-reduces-wastewater-concerns-for-yorkville-projects/article_ba7331c8-6c74-4ae4-9658-f851ba5c6951.html)
[11r] Engineering Enterprises, Inc. (EEI), “Water Planning for Data Center Developments, Progress Meeting, March 6, 2026,” presentation in the United City of Yorkville City Council Packet, March 10, 2026, Supplemental Packet 2 (Project Cardinal), packet pp. 91 to 126. Projected water use table (developer estimates received August 29, 2025): CyrusOne CHI 11, 9,228 gpd average / 23,004 maximum day; Project Cardinal 42,000 / 71,400; Project Steel 23,198 / 39,437; five further projected developments; totals 98,425 gpd average day and 174,639 gpd maximum day. Projected average day demand, city plus data centers, 3.660 MGD in 2050 against an IDNR allocation of 3.566 MGD; “Additional capacity available in DWC pipeline = 3 MG”; recommendations specific to data center developments: “No significant improvements were identified” for 3 to 10 years, “Potentially new back-up well” beyond 10 years. Connection fee analysis dated February 17, 2026: Project Cardinal $3,578,400; Project Steel $1,976,504; components include DWC/Lake Michigan supply, extra transmission capacity, storage, and backup wells at $6,390 per population equivalent of 75 gpd. Same packet series, Supplemental Packet 1 (Project Steel), Community Development memo: Project Steel to use an air-cooled closed-loop system, “no City water will be used for cooling,” daily use “for potable uses by employees”; original estimate of 130,000 gpd communicated September 2025; Cardinal and Steel “have funded a water planning study prepared by the City’s engineering consultant, EEI.” https://www.yorkville.il.us/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/6669 (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261025154932/https://www.yorkville.il.us/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/6669) and https://www.yorkville.il.us/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/6668 (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20260313220706/https://www.yorkville.il.us/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/6668)
[11w] United City of Yorkville, City Council Packet, June 10, 2025 (ArchiveCenter Item 6268). Written public comment correspondence, packet pp. 234 to 236: resident email of March 25, 2025 (“could cause significant noise pollution in this area to residents, causing neurological and mental health stressors in addition to medical issues and complications”) with links to Washington Department of Ecology, EPA DERA, American Cancer Society, and California Air Resources Board diesel pages, and City Administrator Bart Olson’s replies of March 27 and 31, 2025: that none of the data centers nearer the resident’s home will use well water, “neither their own or the City wells,” and “They are not anticipated to begin operation until well after we have converted to the Lake Michigan source”; “We have spoken with our government counterparts in Loudoun County Virginia, which is the data center capital of the world. They have spoken a bit about noise complaints being the most frequent issue cited by neighbors, but they tended to downplay the severity of it compared to your assertion of medical issues and complications.” Staff memorandum, Sara Mendez, Planner I, to the Planning and Zoning Commission, May 7, 2025, “PZC 2025-05 Data Center Development Standards, Text Amendment,” packet pp. 394 to 410, comparing Loudoun County, Prince William County, and Chandler standards (“While Yorkville is not looking to adopt Loudoun County’s standards exactly, it aims to implement similar best practices tailored to the City’s specific needs”); Loudoun generator testing hours as tabulated in the memo: May 1 to September 30, 5 to 7 p.m.; October 1 to April 30, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; table of twelve data center projects with nearest distance to a residential property line: Cyrus One ~2,230 feet; Prologis (Project Steel) ~3,500 feet; Daniels (South) ~130 feet; Daniels (North) ~98 feet; Green Door 50 acres ~4,300 feet; Green Door-Hagemann ~7,300 feet; Green Door-Kelaka ~1,500 feet; Green Door-Meyer ~0 feet; Hamman-Kelaka ~0 feet; Magnolia Hill Partners ~2,600 feet; Pioneer (Project Cardinal) ~460 feet; PGP Development ~650 feet. Draft ordinance, packet pp. 389 to 393, adopted as Ordinance 2025-53 on June 24, 2025 by a 7-0 roll call (draft minutes of the June 24, 2025 City Council meeting, in the July 22, 2025 City Council Packet, ArchiveCenter Item 6360, p. 20). https://www.yorkville.il.us/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/6268 (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20251030032646/https://www.yorkville.il.us/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/6268) and https://www.yorkville.il.us/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/6360 (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261025162554/https://www.yorkville.il.us/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/6360)
[11x] United City of Yorkville, Ordinance No. 2025-77, approving the Planned Unit Development Agreement for Project Cardinal, passed November 10, 2025 (7-0), signed by the mayor November 13, 2025, published November 14, 2025; city-posted executed copy, mayor’s signature and clerk’s attestation dated November 13, 2025, Pioneer Development signature and date lines blank. Section 2.1: vesting applies “Upon commencement of the Project within three (3) years of the Effective Date.” Section 2.2: “Section 10-4-10 of the UDO is reserved for additional regulations applicable to Energy Industrial Uses. No new or amended standards, code provisions, or special regulations for Energy Industrial Uses shall apply to the Subject Property during the twenty (20) year vested term from the Effective Date of this Agreement, unless Developer agrees in writing or to the extent required by state or federal law.” No reference to Ordinance 2025-53. Section 2.14: “seventy-eight (78) feet, inclusive of any rooftop mechanical equipment or appurtenances.” Section 3.5: water obligations “addressed exclusively in the Utility Agreement.” https://www.yorkville.il.us/DocumentCenter/View/13587/Ordinance-2025-77—record?bidId= (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261025151237/https://www.yorkville.il.us/DocumentCenter/View/13587/Ordinance-2025-77—record?bidId=). Annexation agreement, Ordinance No. 2025-78: https://www.yorkville.il.us/DocumentCenter/View/13588/Ordinance-2025-78—record?bidId= (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261025151421/https://www.yorkville.il.us/DocumentCenter/View/13588/Ordinance-2025-78—record?bidId=). Packet version: City Council Packet, November 10, 2025 (ArchiveCenter Item 6499), Planned Unit Development Agreement between the United City of Yorkville and Pioneer Development, LLC (Project Cardinal), packet pp. 272 to 290. Section 2.1: entitlements “fully vested and protected from amendments and changes to City ordinances, codes, or regulations for a period of twenty (20) years from the Effective Date.” Section 2.2: “No new or amended standards, code provisions, or special regulations for Energy Industrial Uses shall apply to the Subject Property during the twenty (20) year vested term from the Effective Date of this Agreement, unless Developer agrees in writing or to the extent required by state or federal law.” Section 2.3: approximately ten-year build-out; Phasing Plan “advisory only and non-binding.” Section 2.4: “All data center buildings shall be at least five hundred feet (500′) from the nearest residential or commercial structure outside the boundaries of the Subject Property,” measured “from existing, occupied, residential or commercial buildings as of the date of PUD approval.” Section 2.10: 100-foot Transition Zone Type D buffer with a 12-foot berm facing residential properties and 8 feet elsewhere; “No additional berms or landscape requirements shall be imposed unless Developer agrees in writing.” Section 2.11: “the most appropriate location for Mechanical Equipment is on the rooftops; therefore, whenever practical, mechanical equipment shall be placed on the rooftops”; project subject to the City Noise Ordinance “as it existed when the PUD application was approved by the City Council.” Section 2.14: 78-foot maximum height including rooftop equipment. Section 2.17: “all primary power used for the data center campus on the Subject Property will be delivered from the Commonwealth Edison power grid” unless the City Council approves otherwise. Section 3.4: continuous noise monitoring devices at the onset of each construction phase, a preliminary report within 60 days after each building is operational, devices maintained for the life of the project. Section 3.11: operational testing of generators “during the hours of 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, and not on any Holidays.” https://www.yorkville.il.us/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/6499 (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261025154939/https://www.yorkville.il.us/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/6499)
[11b] United City of Yorkville, Ordinance No. 2025-53, data center standards, passed June 24, 2025 (7-0), published June 27, 2025, replacing Unified Development Ordinance Section 10-4-10 in its entirety: https://www.yorkville.il.us/DocumentCenter/View/13005/Ordinance-2025-53?bidId= (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261025151332/https://www.yorkville.il.us/DocumentCenter/View/13005/Ordinance-2025-53?bidId=). As codified, UDO Section 10-4-10, history note “(Ord. No. 2025-53, effective 06/27/2025)”: initial noise study with baseline measurements and predictive modeling; final study on “actual sound level measurements”; mitigation plan “including the penalty for tonal equipment”; annual monitoring by the city’s consultant for three years or, alternatively, continuous monitors from the onset of construction; rooftop HVAC or mechanical units “shall require the approval of City Council”; 70-foot height including rooftop equipment within 1,500 feet of a residence; generator testing 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, non-holidays; 50-foot battery setback; 500-foot building separation; 100-foot landscape buffers. No water or well provisions. https://online.encodeplus.com/regs/yorkville-il/doc-viewer.aspx?secid=290 (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261025034754/https://online.encodeplus.com/regs/yorkville-il/doc-viewer.aspx?secid=290). UDO Section 10-7-6.A: “All parcels within a subdivision shall be required to connect to the United City of Yorkville’s Public Water Supply System.” https://online.encodeplus.com/regs/yorkville-il/doc-viewer.aspx?secid=326 (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261025034848/https://online.encodeplus.com/regs/yorkville-il/doc-viewer.aspx?secid=326)
[11z] Yorkville water and project timing, read October 24, 2026. CyrusOne, Yorkville Technology Campus page (company source): “The first building is expected to be completed in late 2027, with full operations beginning in 2028.” https://www.cyrusone.com/data-centers/north-america/yorkville-technology-campus (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261025155012/https://www.cyrusone.com/data-centers/north-america/yorkville-technology-campus). Joey Weslo, Shaw Local, June 8, 2026: Project Cardinal’s developers asked to extend the land-acquisition deadline from July 1, 2026 to December 31, 2027. https://shawlocal.com/kendall-county-now/2026/06/08/developers-of-project-cardinal-data-center-in-yorkville-ask-for-18-month-extension-to-purchase-land (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261025155634/https://shawlocal.com/kendall-county-now/2026/06/08/developers-of-project-cardinal-data-center-in-yorkville-ask-for-18-month-extension-to-purchase-land). Joey Weslo, Shaw Local, June 17, 2026: Lake Michigan water “expected to be online for Yorkville by the summer of 2028.” https://shawlocal.com/kendall-county-now/2026/06/17/yorkvilles-170-million-federal-epa-loan-for-lake-michigan-water-project-stuck-in-limbo/ (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20260831050426/https://shawlocal.com/kendall-county-now/2026/06/17/yorkvilles-170-million-federal-epa-loan-for-lake-michigan-water-project-stuck-in-limbo/)
[11e] Shaw Local (Kendall County Now), “Developers of Project Cardinal data center in Yorkville ask for 18-month extension to purchase land,” June 8, 2026. City memorandum of understanding penalty structure: average of 42,000 gallons per day across a billing cycle, 71,400 gallons on a single day, penalties imposed for exceeding either; primary document now cited as [11o]. https://www.shawlocal.com/kendall-county-now/2026/06/08/developers-of-project-cardinal-data-center-in-yorkville-ask-for-18-month-extension-to-purchase-land/ (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261025155634/https://www.shawlocal.com/kendall-county-now/2026/06/08/developers-of-project-cardinal-data-center-in-yorkville-ask-for-18-month-extension-to-purchase-land/)
[11f] WSPY News, “City council gives green light to 550-acre data center campus,” March 2026 (Project Steel, Prologis). Developers’ stated figures: approximately 25,000 gallons per day average, approximately 42,500 gallons per day on peak days. These figures describe Project Steel, a separate Yorkville proposal, and should not be applied to Project Cardinal. https://www.wspynews.com/news/local/city-council-gives-green-light-to-550-acre-data-center-campus/article_451023a9-3ea1-4cac-846f-49e90b117ab9.html (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20260909023807/https://www.wspynews.com/news/local/city-council-gives-green-light-to-550-acre-data-center-campus/article_451023a9-3ea1-4cac-846f-49e90b117ab9.html)
[11g] Shaw Local, “Questions arise over data centers’ water use, Illinois considers mandating water-efficient cooling systems,” July 10, 2026. “At full build-out, the Project Cardinal data center in Yorkville will use the same amount of water each day as 141 homes.” Restates the Yorkville penalty structure: 71,400 gallons on any particular day, 42,000 gallons per day average across a billing cycle. https://www.shawlocal.com/news/2026/07/10/questions-arise-over-data-centers-water-usage-illinois-considers-mandating-water-efficient-cooling-systems/ (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20260923145043/https://www.shawlocal.com/news/2026/07/10/questions-arise-over-data-centers-water-usage-illinois-considers-mandating-water-efficient-cooling-systems/)
[11h] Shaw Local (Kendall County Now), “‘Nobody wants to live in data center row’ – Residents speak out after Yorkville approves 540-acre data center,” March 26, 2026. City Administrator Bart Olson on Project Steel: air-cooled, approximately 25,000 to 42,400 gallons per day; 25,000 gpd characterized as “the equivalent water usage of 90 to 120 homes.” Recounting aldermen’s questions, describes Project Cardinal as one “which will be using zero municipal water” and “trucking in its own water for a closed-loop system.” Also reports 3,016 acres slated for data center development along the Eldamain Corridor across roughly a dozen separate projects approved, under review, or in site inquiry. https://www.shawlocal.com/kendall-county-now/2026/03/26/nobody-wants-to-live-in-data-center-row-residents-speak-out-after-yorkville-approves-540-acre-data-center/ (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20260802044039/https://www.shawlocal.com/kendall-county-now/2026/03/26/nobody-wants-to-live-in-data-center-row-residents-speak-out-after-yorkville-approves-540-acre-data-center/)
[11i] Shaw Local (Kendall County Now), “228-acre CyrusOne data center agrees to pay Yorkville $15 million up-front, city imposes water use limits,” July 14, 2026. CyrusOne initially projected at 500,000 gallons per day, reduced to a maximum of 40,000 gallons per day under city-imposed limits; average home water consumption reported at around 300 gallons per day. https://www.shawlocal.com/kendall-county-now/2026/07/14/228-acre-cyrusone-data-center-agrees-to-pay-yorkville-15-million-up-front-city-imposes-water-use-limits/ (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20260920210417/https://www.shawlocal.com/kendall-county-now/2026/07/14/228-acre-cyrusone-data-center-agrees-to-pay-yorkville-15-million-up-front-city-imposes-water-use-limits/)
[11l] CBS Chicago, “Yorkville residents file lawsuit seeking to stop massive data center project,” April 29, 2026, and “Yorkville farm, residents sue to stop second massive data center project,” May 29, 2026. Preserve Our Yorkville & Community LLC allegations: rezoning of more than 1,000 acres from residential to industrial without a noise analysis, traffic impact study, or analysis of cooling water consumption, and without proper notice to property owners within 500 feet; second suit challenges the Project Steel approval on parallel notice grounds. Allegations are unadjudicated. https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/yorkville-data-center-lawsuit-pioneer-development/ (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20260916192849/https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/yorkville-data-center-lawsuit-pioneer-development/) and https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/yorkville-farm-lawsuit-second-massive-data-center-project/ (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20260924214603/https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/yorkville-farm-lawsuit-second-massive-data-center-project/)
[11j] WSPY News, “Yorkville Data Centers To Use 200 Million Gallons of Water Annually At Full Buildout,” June 23, 2025 (updated June 25, 2025), reporting the City of Yorkville’s presentation on proposed data centers: all currently proposed data centers combined projected at approximately 200 million gallons per year at full development, against a city processing over 800 million gallons annually. City Administrator Bart Olson: if the data centers are built before the Lake Michigan pipeline is completed, “they will use Yorkville’s well water in the interim.” https://www.wspynews.com/news/local/yorkville-data-centers-to-use-200-million-gallons-of-water-annually-at-full-buildout/article_9437e342-81cf-464f-b020-9e7ac2bcedd2.html (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20260908191718/https://www.wspynews.com/news/local/yorkville-data-centers-to-use-200-million-gallons-of-water-annually-at-full-buildout/article_9437e342-81cf-464f-b020-9e7ac2bcedd2.html)
[13] Politico / E&E News, “A data center drained 30M gallons of water unnoticed – until residents complained about low water pressure,” May 9-10, 2026. Primary document: Fayette County water system letter to QTS, May 15, 2025 (obtained via public records request; not published), as reported. Bill: “owed nearly $150,000 for using more than 29 million gallons of unaccounted-for water”; campus “covering 615 acres with plans for up to 16 buildings.” Water system director Vanessa Tigert: “They’re our largest customer, and we have to be partners”; Tigert estimated the unbilled period at about four months, a QTS spokesperson at nine to 15 months. https://www.eenews.net/articles/georgia-residents-seethe-over-30m-gallons-of-missing-water/ (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261024150601/https://www.eenews.net/articles/georgia-residents-seethe-over-30m-gallons-of-missing-water/)
[13a] The Citizen (Fayetteville, GA), “Behind Fayette’s QTS Water Controversy: A Missed Meter, 8,000 Workers and a Massive Construction Project,” May 11, 2026. County Administrator Steve Rapson and Assistant County Administrator Jason Tinsley on the record attributing the issue to a missed meter reading during the county’s transition of roughly 33,000 meters to Advanced Metering Infrastructure, not unauthorized installation; confirms staff inspected the meter during construction; Rapson: the City of Fayetteville is the only current customer using more water than QTS, and “After these buildings are built, QTS won’t even be on my top 10.” https://thecitizen.com/2026/05/11/behind-fayettes-qts-water-controversy-a-missed-meter-8000-workers-and-a-massive-construction-project/ (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20260806062710/https://thecitizen.com/2026/05/11/behind-fayettes-qts-water-controversy-a-missed-meter-8000-workers-and-a-massive-construction-project/). Atlanta News First (WTVM/WSB), “Records raise questions about Georgia’s largest data center and its water use,” July 13, 2026, reporting the county’s formal public statement retracting the “unauthorized” framing: “Our letter was unclear, which caused misunderstandings about how much water QTS is allowed to use.” https://www.wtvm.com/2026/07/13/records-raise-questions-about-georgias-largest-data-center-its-water-use/ (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20260723073526/https://www.wtvm.com/2026/07/13/records-raise-questions-about-georgias-largest-data-center-its-water-use/)
[13b] Fayette County, Georgia, “Facts about the QTS Fayetteville Data Center Campus Project,” May 13, 2026. “Our letter on May 15, 2025, was unclear, which caused misunderstandings about how much water QTS is allowed to use”; some meters “were still connected to the old system and not linked to the new digital system for billing or usage tracking” during the upgrade of 33,000 customer meters to Advanced Metering Infrastructure; QTS “was immediately billed at the $6.46/per 1,000 gallons construction rate,” “double the normal retail rate for past water use”; QTS monthly usage “less than 1%” of current production. https://fayettecountyga.gov/news_detail_T2_R185.php (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261008100925/https://fayettecountyga.gov/news_detail_T2_R185.php)
[20] Shaddox, T. and Unruh, J.B. et al., “Survey of Water Use and Management Practices on US Golf Courses from 2005 to 2024,” HortTechnology Vol. 35 No. 5, September 2025 (GCSAA/NGF/USGA peer-reviewed national water survey). 1.63 million acre-feet (approximately 531 billion gallons) applied in 2024. https://journals.ashs.org/view/journals/horttech/35/5/article-p848.xml (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261002110552/https://journals.ashs.org/view/journals/horttech/35/5/article-p848.xml) Corroboration: GCSAA news release, “Golf courses reduce water usage by 31 percent, according to national survey,” December 30, 2025 (“1.63 million acre-feet of water in 2024”). https://www.gcsaa.org/who-we-are/media/news-release/2025/12/30/golf-courses-reduce-water-usage-by-31-percent-according-to-national-survey (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20260904053228/https://www.gcsaa.org/who-we-are/media/news-release/2025/12/30/golf-courses-reduce-water-usage-by-31-percent-according-to-national-survey)
[29] The New York Times / CBS Atlanta / Bloomberg Law, reporting on Meta Stanton Springs campus and Newton/Morgan County groundwater, July 2025 through May 2026. Primary: Eli Tan, The New York Times, “Their Water Taps Ran Dry When Meta Built Next Door,” July 14, 2025 (Beverly and Jeff Morris account; 1,000-foot setback; construction beginning 2018; $5,000 in damages; $25,000 well replacement estimate; Newton County Water and Sewerage Authority executive director Mike Hopkins: Meta’s data center uses about 10% of the county’s total daily water; county on track for a water deficit by 2030 according to a 2024 report; Mansfield Mayor Blair Northen: water rates set to increase 33% over the next two years). Syndicated copy: https://www.sanjuandailystar.com/post/their-water-taps-ran-dry-when-meta-built-next-door (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261025155119/https://www.sanjuandailystar.com/post/their-water-taps-ran-dry-when-meta-built-next-door) CBS Atlanta, “AOC presses EPA over Morgan County drinking water concerns as Meta defends Georgia data center operations,” updated May 28, 2026: Meta’s independent groundwater study by a consulting and engineering firm retained in May 2025 “found that our data center operations and construction had no impact on the resident”; property “located in a separate watershed roughly 1.3 miles from portions of the campus” and “more than a mile away from isolated blasting operations”; House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing, May 20, 2026; Region 4 directed to contact Georgia EPD, Morgan County Public Health Department, and UGA Cooperative Extension; Morgan County health department had received resident questions about low pressure and dirty water. https://www.cbsnews.com/atlanta/news/aoc-presses-epa-over-morgan-county-drinking-water-concerns-tied-to-georgia-data-center-development/ (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20260720211410/https://www.cbsnews.com/atlanta/news/aoc-presses-epa-over-morgan-county-drinking-water-concerns-tied-to-georgia-data-center-development/). CBS Atlanta, May 28, 2026, reports EPA’s follow-up statement that directing Region 4 to gather information “should not be interpreted as a formal federal investigation,” quoting EPA directly: “looking into a matter and gathering facts is not the same as opening a formal investigation.” https://www.cbsnews.com/atlanta/news/aoc-presses-epa-over-morgan-county-drinking-water-concerns-tied-to-georgia-data-center-development/ (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20260720211410/https://www.cbsnews.com/atlanta/news/aoc-presses-epa-over-morgan-county-drinking-water-concerns-tied-to-georgia-data-center-development/) and Bloomberg Law, May 21, 2026: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/epa-to-investigate-meta-data-center-link-to-contaminated-water (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20260526080640/https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/epa-to-investigate-meta-data-center-link-to-contaminated-water)
[36a] City of Chandler, Arizona, Ordinance No. 5033, Zoning Code amendment PLH22-0053 adding Chapter 35, Section 35-2214 (Data Centers), and Council Memo dated December 8, 2022 (Planning and Zoning Commission October 19, 2022, 7-0; introduced and tentatively adopted December 5, 2022). Memo: potential impacts “primarily from unwanted noise”; “As these data centers have developed closer to the urbanized area of Chandler, including residential areas, the potential for noise compatibility issues has increased”; “an industry migration from water-cooled to electrically-cooled facilities”; the lack of rules “has caused confusion for both the data center industry and Chandler residents.” Ordinance 35-2214(3) to (7): on-site liaison for noise complaints; pre-construction “sound study performed by a third-party acoustic engineer” at “the property line of the nearest property”; mitigation to prevent noise “from exceeding the ambient noise levels that were observed in the baseline study”; post-construction study “during peak operation of the Data Center mechanical equipment” and annual studies for five years; generator testing announced 24 hours in advance and limited to 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. No decibel limit. https://www.chandleraz.gov/sites/default/files/departments/development-services/PLH22-0053-Ordinance-No-5033-Data-Center.pdf (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261012204157/https://www.chandleraz.gov/sites/default/files/departments/development-services/PLH22-0053-Ordinance-No-5033-Data-Center.pdf) and https://www.chandleraz.gov/sites/default/files/departments/development-services/PLH22-0053-Council-Memo.pdf (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261010000250/https://www.chandleraz.gov/sites/default/files/departments/development-services/PLH22-0053-Council-Memo.pdf). City release, “Chandler’s data center ordinance now in effect,” January 11, 2023 (effective January 5, 2023): https://www.chandleraz.gov/news-center/chandlers-data-center-ordinance-now-effect (archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20261010004135/https://www.chandleraz.gov/news-center/chandlers-data-center-ordinance-now-effect)