Data Centers in Arizona and Georgia Used Public Water Without Authorization

In the first week of May, two data center projects, one in Arizona and one in Georgia, were found to have taken public water without authorization. In both cases, the developments occurred in areas already experiencing water stress. Residents' complaints about low water pressure and dust control efforts prompted regulators to investigate.

In Fayette County, Georgia, residents of the Annelise Park subdivision south of Atlanta reported declining water pressure throughout 2025. County officials traced the issue to two industrial water hookups serving a 615-acre data center campus known as Project Excalibur, developed by Quality Technology Services, a company owned by Blackstone.

One connection was installed without the utility's knowledge, and the other was not linked to the developer's billing account, allowing more than 29 million gallons to be used without metering or payment. The volume taken by QTS exceeded the peak usage limit set during project planning.

County officials sent a letter in May 2025 documenting retroactive charges of $147,474, which the company paid. No additional fines were imposed. The county water director stated that QTS is the county's largest customer and that the relationship requires partnership.

The QTS campus currently includes 13 buildings spanning about 6.2 million square feet. It is projected to generate $150 million to $200 million annually in property tax revenue. The company said it will use a closed-loop cooling system once operational and that the high water use was tied to temporary construction activities including concrete work, dust suppression and site preparation.

Construction is expected to continue for another three to five years.

U.S. data centers directly consumed 17.4 billion gallons of water in 2023, according to the EPA. That figure is projected to rise to between 38 billion and 73 billion gallons by 2028. In Texas, data centers are estimated to use 49 billion gallons in 2025 and as much as 399 billion gallons by 2030.

Google's data centers in The Dalles, Oregon, consumed 355 million gallons in 2021, about one-quarter of the city's total water supply. A Meta data center in Newton County, Georgia, disrupted nearby private wells. In South Carolina, conservation groups opposed Google's permit to draw 1.5 million gallons a day.

More than 50 cities across the country have enacted bans or moratoria on new data center construction, including Fayetteville, Georgia. In Utah, a data center proposal associated with Kevin O’Leary drew nearly 3,900 public protests over water rights.

2025, the Tucson City Council unanimously rejected involvement with the Project Blue data center complex, citing concerns over water and electricity use in a region that receives seven to 10 inches of rain per year. Amazon withdrew from the project within a year, but developer Beale Infrastructure purchased the land from Pima County and continued construction while seeking new partners.

A resident's inquiry about the source of dust control water at the site led to an investigation. City Manager Timothy Thomure sent a letter to Beale stating that contractor Ames Construction had obtained a construction water meter within Tucson’s service area and transported the water outside city limits without authorization.

The city shut off the meter and demanded replacement of the two acre-feet used, approximately 650,000 gallons. Beale said the city had issued a permit for temporary water through normal channels. A city spokesman said the document was an application for a construction meter intended for use inside the service area and that the contractor did not disclose the water would be moved outside city limits.

Developers have increasingly sited projects just beyond municipal boundaries to avoid Arizona’s Assured and Adequate Water Supply law, which requires demonstration of 100 years of water availability. The incidents in Fayette County and Tucson are part of a broader pattern of tension between data center development and local water supplies in drought-affected regions.