Data Centers Near Lake Mead Use Water During Drought

Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States, sits at 30 percent of capacity with 7.53 million acre-feet in storage as of Wednesday, according to U.S. Bureau of Reclamation data. The reservoir supplies water to roughly 40 million people and irrigates about 5 million acres of farmland across the Colorado River basin.

Prolonged drought has lowered the lake from 1,086 feet in January 2017 to 1,056 feet by late April of the current year.

Nevada hosts 70 data centers, dozens of them in the Las Vegas area near Lake Mead. Google operates a 750,000-square-foot facility in Henderson with roughly 60 megawatts of capacity that uses water for cooling. The company stated its 2023 water-stewardship projects returned more water to the Colorado River basin than the site consumed.

Twenty-three Southern Nevada data centers together used an estimated 716 million gallons in 2024, an amount equal to the annual needs of about 4,395 single-family homes.

City opposed an 88.5-acre data-center proposal near Hoover Dam and Lake Mead. An online petition against data centers in the city collected about 2,100 signatures by April 7. The Boulder City Planning Commission voted to recommend denial of the project after dozens of residents cited concerns over energy and water demand, noise, air pollution, and heat.

The proposal remains scheduled for later review by the City Council.