Here at the Center, we get a lot of questions about AI-data centers: how do they consume water? How does their water consumption compare to other industries? Does the Great Lakes Compact regulate their water use? The Center for Water Policy and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel collaborated …
Center for Water Policy Director, Professor, and Lynde B. Uihlein Endowed Chair Melissa Scanlan was on NPR’s High Plains Public Radio discussing a proposed rural Kansas data center. Professor Scanlan contextualized how the lack of resource demand disclosure and regional- …
Walking on the beach is a simple yet legally complex act. The Public Trust Doctrine guides how we access, use, and enjoy certain water bodies. However, states differently interpret and apply certain tenets of this doctrine, including whether and where the public can walk the shoreline. Director, Professor, and Lynde B. Uihlein Endowed …
The Center for Water Policy’s 2024-26 Water Policy and Science Communications Fellow Cami Armendariz won “Best Short Video” in the 2026 Planet Forward Storyfest competition! Cami’s video “Bringing Back the Giants: Sturgeon Restoration in the Milwaukee River Watershed” examines how …
Center for Water Policy Assistant Director Tressie Kamp was a guest on Wisconsin Public Radio’s Wisconsin Today to discuss water and energy impacts of AI-data centers. She also spoke about the consequences of not understanding these facilities’ full resource demands. …
The water demands of AI-data centers continue generating questions and concerns, not just in the U.S. but internationally. Center for Water Policy Assistant Director Tressie Kamp was quoted in the French publication franceinfo about looking toward the future resource demands of our AI use and the associated resource demands of AI-data centers. “If …
The Great Lakes region is experiencing an AI-data center boom. Unprecedented demands of the industry on water supplies, electric grids, and local infrastructure have exposed gaps in our water policies. Center Water Policy staff Melissa Scanlan, Tressie Kamp, Emilie Washer, and Will Matuska’s Op-Ed in the Milwaukee Journal …
The Center for Water Policy has operated since 2011 after Lynde B. Uihlein endowed the Center with a charitable gift of $2.6 million. Today, we are thrilled to announce an additional generous gift of $4 million from Lynde B. Uihlein to the Center’s Endowment, part of her historic $10 million gift to the School …
Center for Water Policy Director, Professor, and Lynde B. Uihlein Endowed Chair Melissa Scanlan contributed to a Great Lakes Now article examining the potential for—and stalled progress of—Great Lakes offshore wind energy. In the piece, Professor Scanlan outlines five primary factors that have stalled offshore wind …
Last week, Center for Water Policy Assistant Director Tressie Kamp was a keynote speaker at the Blue Futures symposium hosted by Water@UW-Madison. The symposium focused on the influence of emerging technologies, scientific innovation, and evolving policy landscapes on water systems. Kamp presented about the hidden environmental …
