Prior to any data center development proposals approvals, baseline and commonsense water use and pollution protections should be established at the state and local level. Many states and counties across the country are establishing commonsense water protections. For an arid state with limited water, 35% of assessed river miles and 22% of assessed lakes classified as impaired, and an economy based on clean water, Montana’s leading water advocate Upper Missouri Waterkeeper is recommending:
- Defining data centers as a new, regulated water use
- Develop a new water user classification for data centers using the existing data center definition in Montana statute, requiring new rules, examination of cumulative and long-term impacts, and approvals from the Montana Department of Natural Resources and impacted local watershed committees before any other approvals.
- Prohibit data centers in closed water basins
- Closed water basins with unadjudicated water rights and new data center water demand do not mix. Establish data center protections for all closed water basins.
- Require zero impact and net positive standards for data center water use with approval by impacted local watershed committee and local government
- Establish a water budget requirement. A data center facility must show a credible, enforceable plan to remain within a basin’s hydrologic limits by season Summer low-flow and high temperature must be considered.
- Drought protection: escalating restrictions during low-flow/hoot-owl periods (or when stream temps exceed thresholds), including automatic curtailment of evaporative cooling.
- Cooling standards and moratoriums in sensitive areas
- Data centers consume enormous quantities of water for cooling. We need standards in place to protect water-strained and sensitive areas from massive water withdrawals for data center cooling systems.
- Protect public water supplies and existing uses
- In Montana, water supplies are finite and already stressed from chronic and persistent drought, reduced snowpack, and more demand than ever before.
- Water usage for data centers will divert water from existing uses, including agriculture, fisheries, drinking water, and senior water rights holders.
- We need verification that data centers’ water use will not impact existing water rights and neighboring wells before a project can advance.
- Close exempt-well loophole and state thermal exemption
- Montana’s exempt well loophole allows industrial water withdrawals without adequate permitting, public notice, or zoning review.
- The thermal exempt well provision allows a 350-gallon-per-minute exemption, the equivalent of just over half a million gallons per day (504,000 gallons), without a water right. (MCA §85-2-306).
- The 2027 Legislature should direct DNRC to prohibit the use of the thermal exempt well loophole for any industrial cooling. All thermal pollution should be accounted for.
- Protect local water quality and wildlife
- Evaporative cooling will withdraw water from basins at the most critical times for rivers and fisheries. The removal of groundwater or surface water could tip fisheries from crisis to extinction.
- Mandatory disclosure of coolants, additives, and disposal
- The evaporative cooling process used by data centers can contribute emerging compounds, contaminants and forever chemicals (PFAs) that degrade water quality.
- Montana must enforce the disclosure of coolants, additives, and waste disposal that may end up in wastewater and poses environmental and health risks.
- Treat data centers as industrial user class with BAT standards of care
- Best available technology standards of care would mandate water-efficient cooling systems and high-performance energy standards to mitigate impacts on water resources.
- Protect Wastewater and Stormwater Utilities
- Closed-loop systems may use biocides and include hardened water-consolidated chemicals that could threaten treatment-plant bacteria and fish and wildlife downstream from a wastewater plant or from an unexpected stormwater event, including a leak or fire. Hyperscale facilities should not be able to connect to or discharge stormwater without real protections for public infrastructure and water resources.
- Transparency, public participation, enforcement
- Montana’s constitution guarantees citizens the right to know and the right to participate in government decisionmaking. This needs to apply to data center proposals.
- Many of Montana’s rural areas lack zoning, meaning data centers may pop up with little, if any, local review or participation.
Photo Credit: Mike Rogoway | The Oregonian/OregonLive