Inside North Carolina’s data center boom: Where does the water go? :: WRAL.com

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More than two dozen North Carolina communities have adopted moratoriums or zoning restrictions on data centers as concerns grow over noise, electricity demand and water use.

The pushback comes as tech companies plan billions of dollars in new investment across the state and lawmakers debate how tightly the industry should be regulated.

Antone Jain, a water engineer who works with data centers across the country, says utilities are already grappling with population growth, aging infrastructure and drought. Now, the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence is adding another source of strain for water supplies.

“It’s job security for water engineers,” Jain said. “No one knows how bad it’s going to be, but it’s going to be bad for sure.”

The concerns are playing out nationwide.

In Utah, public opposition helped force developers of a massive AI-focused data center project backed by investor Kevin O’Leary to significantly scale back plans amid concerns about water use near the drought-stricken Great Salt Lake. In Georgia, residents started complaining about low water pressure before officials discovered a large data center campus had consumed nearly 30 million gallons of water that wasn’t initially being tracked by the local utility.

A recent analysis by The Guardian found roughly two-thirds of planned U.S. data centers are slated for areas that experienced drought conditions during the past…

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