In 2025, the Western States Water Council identified data centers as a significant issue for discussion among member states. Without seeking to establish a position on data centers, Council staff set about tracking their impacts on water availability and quality, as well as state-level responses to the growing number of data centers being sited within their borders.
June 2026 Topical Report: State Legislative Approaches to Data Centers
Additional information from States on Recent Legislation:
Idaho: Idaho’s legislature passed HB 895 during the last session, effective July 1, 2026. The bill finds that data centers, defined in § 63-3622VV, “require significant amounts of water” that: 1) conflicts with the local public interest; 2) is contrary to State water conservation; and 3) will adversely affect local economies. Further, the Legislature intends for the Director of the Idaho Dept. of Water Resources to consider said findings when evaluating new water right appropriations or transfers for data centers. Finally, the bill adds § 67-3512B to ban data centers built on or after July 1, 2026, from using “water for cooling purposes as a consumptive use, unless the water is supplied by a municipal, water district, or water and sewer district water system.” https://legislature.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/sessioninfo/2026/legislation/H0895.pdf
Utah: HB 76 (Data Center Water Transparency Amendments), passed during the 2026 legislative session, requires large data centers (≥ 10,000 sq. ft.) to report their projected and annual water usage to local water providers and state agencies. Signed by the Governor, the bill’s transparency measures took effect May 6, 2026: https://le.utah.gov/Session/
New York: SB 10642, passed by the New York Senate and Assembly, places a one year moratorium on the issuance of data center permits; requires utilities to establish an independent classification of service for large data centers; sets energy efficiency goals for data centers; provides for benefits for host communities https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/bills/2025/S10642 New York Governor Kathy Hochul also signed Executive Order 62 “to create the nation’s first moratorium on new hyperscale data centers, establishing the strongest standards for data center development and creating a blueprint to support localities. The Governor is temporarily pausing State environmental permits for up to one year in order to build a nation-leading regulatory framework that protects ratepayers, the environment, the energy grid and communities across the state.” https://www.governor.ny.gov/sites/default/files/2026-07/EO_62.pdf
WestFAST Webinar: Water Issues and Data Centers with Mary Ann Dickinson
On May 7, 2026 a Western States Federal Agency Support Team (WestFAST) webinar featured MaryAnn Dickinson, Policy Director of Land and Water at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, presenting on the water and land use challenges posed by data center siting in local communities. Dickinson framed the issue not as one of opposing AI, but of managing its infrastructure responsibly. She explained that hyperscale data centers can consume up to 5 million gallons of water per day for cooling, electricity demand from data centers is projected to reach 130 gigawatts by 2030, and that each 100-word AI prompt uses roughly one water bottle’s worth of water. She emphasized that these decisions are almost always made at the local level, yet land use planning and water policy are rarely well-integrated–making data centers, in her words, “a perfect storm” for the disconnect. The Lincoln Institute is working to give communities better tools, including model zoning ordinances, strategies to avoid water rate shock, and hydrological gap analyses for hotspot states like Arizona and Virginia.
Dickinson highlighted the commonly overlooked risk of data center abandonment. She explained that chip technology evolves rapidly, rendering both chips and their storage racks obsolete within 5–10 years. The cost of retrofitting an entire facility may exceed the cost of abandonment and building elsewhere. Lincoln is working with a financial risk expert to develop instruments communities require applicants to include, such as insurance policies, derivatives, surety bonds, and structured purpose vehicles. Attendees raised concerns about the indirect water footprint of energy generation (which can exceed the data center’s own cooling use), opacity of non-disclosure agreements during permitting, and the disconnect between corporate “water positive” pledges and actual local watershed impacts. The Western States Water Council expressed interest in collaborating with Lincoln on state-level guidance, and Dickinson noted she hopes to publish several of these tools and case studies later in 2026.
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Resources
See also AAAS’ Resource Key Questions to Ask When Considering Data Centers in Your Community
Interstate Council on Water Policy (ICWP) Data Centers Report, by Jessie Stahl
Other data centers information in progress.