Data centers proposed on top of largest underground water reservoir in US, raising environmental sustainability questions.

The rapid expansion of AI data centers is raising urgent environmental questions across the Great Plains: can one of America's most important groundwater reserves support both a growing digital economy and the agricultural communities that depend on it?

New mapping by Brockovich AI Data Center Reporting reveals that several proposed and under-construction AI facilities are located directly above or immediately adjacent to the Ogallala Aquifer, a groundwater system underlying much of America's agricultural production. The findings come as local governments in Texas and Wyoming increasingly weigh the economic benefits of AI investment against long-term concerns about water availability.

In Texas, the pattern is already clear. In Tom Green County, commissioners voted on June 2, 2026, to reject a twelve-month moratorium on data center development in Precinct 4, following a massive public protest in April where over 500 residents opposed Beacon's Dove Creek project. The commissioners had previously passed a unanimous resolution calling for stricter state-level regulation of high-volume water usage by data centers. Meanwhile, on June 24, Fermi Chief Site Development Officer Charlie Hamilton testified on water conservation before the Texas House Natural Resources Committee regarding the Fermi Project Matador data center in Amarillo.

The concentration of development across the Ogallala region has intensified scrutiny from researchers, farmers and local officials. While not every facility will draw directly from the aquifer, and some projects are pursuing lower-water cooling technologies, the cumulative implications remain uncertain.

Among the projects attracting attention are several large AI-focused campuses in Texas and Wyoming, with several more proposed nearby where groundwater systems are likely interconnected. Four data centers are already under construction over the Ogallala Aquifer, primarily in Texas and Wyoming.

Critically, these projects are not technologically identical. Some facilities are specifically marketed as lower-water designs. Related Digital's Cheyenne campus has emphasized highly efficient air-cooled systems intended to minimize consumptive water use, relying on fans and heat exchangers rather than evaporating large quantities of water. Other AI campuses are expected to use advanced liquid-cooling systems, which can improve energy efficiency but whose water consumption varies significantly depending on whether facilities rely on closed-loop systems, dry-cooling technology or traditional evaporative cooling towers.

Several major projects—including Beacon Dove Creek, Microsoft's Cheyenne expansion and Prometheus' Casper campus—have not yet publicly disclosed final cooling configurations, water sourcing plans or expected consumptive water use, making long-term impacts difficult to assess. As Benjamin Lee, a professor of electrical and systems engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, noted: "Building data centers in these geographic locations is not inherently good or bad for water use. What matters most is the type of data center and the cooling technology that is used."

The Ogallala Aquifer stretches beneath eight states—South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas—and remains one of North America's most important groundwater resources. It supports roughly 30 percent of U.S. groundwater irrigation and helps sustain about one-fifth of American agricultural production.

Decades of agricultural withdrawals have dramatically reduced water levels across much of the aquifer. In some locations, groundwater levels have fallen by more than 200 feet, far exceeding natural recharge rates. Sudeep Pasricha, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Colorado State University, explained that "in some subregions, water losses have been sustained for decades, with depletion rates reaching over 100,000 acre-feet per year and nearly 27 percent of stored water already gone in places."

Scientists warn the aquifer is being mined, not replenished. According to Pasricha, "unlike surface reservoirs, the aquifer recharges extremely slowly," with recharge rates in parts of the Great Plains often less than an inch per year—far below irrigation withdrawals. This means lost water may take "centuries to millennia in some areas" to return.

Despite these concerns, Texas, Wyoming and other Great Plains states remain attractive for hyperscale AI infrastructure. Developers are drawn by relatively inexpensive land, access to major transmission infrastructure, available power generation, tax incentives and fewer land-use constraints than coastal markets.

Modern AI facilities generate enormous amounts of heat and require sophisticated cooling systems. Depending on design, cooling may rely on municipal supplies, groundwater wells, recycled water systems or low-water alternatives such as dry cooling and closed-loop configurations. Large facilities can consume up to five million gallons per day, comparable to the daily needs of a town of tens of thousands of people.

Water-saving alternatives exist, including air cooling, dry cooling and closed-loop systems. However, those approaches often require additional energy or higher upfront capital costs. Even facilities that minimize direct water consumption can have significant indirect water footprints. Researchers estimate that a substantial share of total water demand occurs off-site through electricity generation, particularly when power plants rely on water-intensive cooling systems.

A landmark study on AI water footprints led by researcher Shaolei Ren from the University of California, Riverside, estimated that 20 to 50 AI queries—such as ChatGPT prompts—can consume about 500 milliliters of water, largely due to cooling systems and electricity use relying on water-intensive processes. Individually, these amounts seem small, but across billions of interactions, cumulative demand becomes significant.

Pasricha cautioned that the greatest concern is cumulative development rather than any single facility. Multiple hyperscale campuses drawing from the same groundwater system could create "material cumulative effects." Researchers stress that cumulative impacts matter most: a single facility may have limited effect, but clusters of large campuses create very different outcomes.

Water availability is increasingly becoming a local political issue rather than simply an environmental one. The long-term consequences will depend heavily on decisions being made now by developers, regulators, utilities and local governments.