Iris Stewart-Frey, a professor of environmental science and hydrology at Santa Clara University, said that potential data center impacts may be even greater in the future as the facilities get bigger and more widespread.
Fifty-one facilities are currently planned in the state, according to a recent study from the Pew Research Center, an 18% increase over the 277 operating today. According to a study from UC Riverside, data center electricity use in the state doubled between 2019 and 2023.
The environmental impact of data centers, and in particular of the hyperscale data centers rapidly being built around the U.S. (and around the world) for the ongoing training and deployment of AI models, has become a topic of public contention.
Amazon.com Inc. said its data centers used 2.5 billion gallons of water worldwide last year, or about 5% of the amount metro Seattle consumes annually.
