The Great Lakes Compact is designed to protect surface and groundwater across the Basin, but it does not require direct reporting of water used by data centers that hook up to municipal systems—leaving a disclosure gap as the industry rapidly expands. In recent features on WUWM 89.7 FM – Milwaukee’s NPR’s “Morning Edition” and “Lake Effect,” Center for Water Policy Director, Professor, and Lynde B. Uihlein Endowed Chair Melissa Scanlan warned that this regulatory gap obscures the significant water and energy demands associated with data center growth.
Scanlan called for “greater disclosure of what the water needs are and how the centers will be powered” and emphasized that taking a long-term, regional view would give Great Lakes states “more control over their future” as this new industry scales up.
You can read & listen to the WUWM Lake Effect story and the Morning Edition interview at the link below.
https://www.wuwm.com/are-there-rules-governing-data-center-water-usage
Read the Center’s law review article on the hidden water use of our increasing reliance on AI-data centers here.