Center for Water Policy Director, Professor, and Lynde B. Uihlein Endowed Chair Melissa Scanlan was a featured expert on the Milwaukee Journal’s Town Hall panel on water use by AI-data centers. Professor Scanlan highlighted that water demands include the water used to create electricity for the data centers and water used to cool them. She also emphasized the level of governance needed is at the scale where impacts are seen (state and regional).
Read more about the panel discussion at Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and watch the full event here.
The Journal Sentinel has other information on data centers available, including an explainer video (located at the top of this webpage) and Q&A.
Want to learn more? Check out the Center for Water Policy’s research on data centers:
- Powering Progress or Peril? The Hidden Environmental Costs of Data Centers and AI | Rutgers Computer and Technology Law Journal
- Data centers consume massive amounts of water – companies rarely tell the public exactly how much | The Conversation
- Inside ESG Reporting: Thirsty Data Centers Reveal Limits to Transparency | American Bar Association