Georgia communities push back as data center boom raises water concerns

As Georgia becomes a popular spot for data centers, local communities are finding ways to limit their expansion.

Atlanta City Council member Kelsea Bond recently introduced legislation to create a task force to study the impacts of data centers on water, energy and health in an effort to fight back against the technology giants.

“Just because there’s so many quickly moving parts, and I think a lot of legislators haven’t been able to take the time and sit down to fully understand what data centers are, how they work, or how they impact our communities,” Bond said.

Georgia has 230 data centers across the state, making it the sixth most in the country. Despite a state data center moratorium failing to pass the state legislature this year, similar limitations have passed in at least 24 Georgia cities and counties.

Telfair County has a population of about 12,000 people, and County Commissioner Dakkia Bradshaw said her little community is concerned about the data center boom.

“I’ve been trying to push for a moratorium as well because I don’t want a data center to come in. We already have water issues. Our water quality is not the best. So if a data center came in, that would be detrimental to our aquifers here,” Bradshaw said.

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock recently requested the Environmental Protection Agency to issue guidance to local communities regarding protecting water supplies amid data center expansion.

Water supply has been a key concern in communities across Georgia with some reporting brown drinking water due to construction and others worried about the extensive use of water by the data centers.