{"id":2933,"date":"2025-08-19T13:47:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T18:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/?p=2933"},"modified":"2025-09-03T11:46:40","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T16:46:40","slug":"data-centers-consume-massive-amounts-of-water-companies-rarely-tell-the-public-exactly-how-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/data-centers-consume-massive-amounts-of-water-companies-rarely-tell-the-public-exactly-how-much\/","title":{"rendered":"Data Centers Consume Massive Amounts of Water \u2013 Companies Rarely Tell the Public Exactly How\u00a0Much"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In a recent article for\u00a0The Conversation<\/em>, Peyton McCauley, Water Policy Specialist, and Professor Melissa Scanlan, Director, of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee\u2019s Center for Water Policy\u00a0examined the growing water demands of data centers driven by artificial intelligence, and why transparency and a consistency in the tracking and reporting of data center water use is needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data centers consume massive amounts of water \u2013 companies rarely tell the public exactly how\u00a0much<\/a><\/em> – The Conversation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a recent article for\u00a0The Conversation, Peyton McCauley, Water Policy Specialist, and Professor Melissa Scanlan, Director, of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee\u2019s Center for Water Policy\u00a0examined the growing water demands of data centers driven by artificial intelligence, and why transparency and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39575,"featured_media":2939,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nData Centers Consume Massive Amounts of Water \u2013 Companies Rarely Tell the Public Exactly How\u00a0Much - Center for Water Policy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/data-centers-consume-massive-amounts-of-water-companies-rarely-tell-the-public-exactly-how-much\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Data Centers Consume Massive Amounts of Water \u2013 Companies Rarely Tell the Public Exactly How\u00a0Much\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a recent article for\u00a0The Conversation, Peyton McCauley, Water Policy Specialist, and Professor Melissa Scanlan, Director, of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee\u2019s Center for Water Policy\u00a0examined the growing water demands of data centers driven by artificial intelligence, and why transparency and …\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/data-centers-consume-massive-amounts-of-water-companies-rarely-tell-the-public-exactly-how-much\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Center for Water Policy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uwmwaterpolicy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-19T18:47:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-03T16:46:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/667\/2025\/08\/Pie-Chart-PDF-scaled-e1755625666505.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1950\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1260\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/centerforwaterpolicy\\\/data-centers-consume-massive-amounts-of-water-companies-rarely-tell-the-public-exactly-how-much\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/centerforwaterpolicy\\\/data-centers-consume-massive-amounts-of-water-companies-rarely-tell-the-public-exactly-how-much\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Data Centers Consume Massive Amounts of Water \u2013 Companies Rarely Tell the Public Exactly How\u00a0Much\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-19T18:47:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-03T16:46:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/centerforwaterpolicy\\\/data-centers-consume-massive-amounts-of-water-companies-rarely-tell-the-public-exactly-how-much\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":90,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/centerforwaterpolicy\\\/data-centers-consume-massive-amounts-of-water-companies-rarely-tell-the-public-exactly-how-much\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/centerforwaterpolicy\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/667\\\/2025\\\/08\\\/Pie-Chart-PDF-scaled-e1755625666505.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/centerforwaterpolicy\\\/data-centers-consume-massive-amounts-of-water-companies-rarely-tell-the-public-exactly-how-much\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/centerforwaterpolicy\\\/data-centers-consume-massive-amounts-of-water-companies-rarely-tell-the-public-exactly-how-much\\\/\",\"name\":\"Data Centers Consume Massive Amounts of Water \u2013 Companies Rarely Tell the Public Exactly How\u00a0Much - Center for Water Policy\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/centerforwaterpolicy\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/centerforwaterpolicy\\\/data-centers-consume-massive-amounts-of-water-companies-rarely-tell-the-public-exactly-how-much\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/centerforwaterpolicy\\\/data-centers-consume-massive-amounts-of-water-companies-rarely-tell-the-public-exactly-how-much\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/centerforwaterpolicy\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/667\\\/2025\\\/08\\\/Pie-Chart-PDF-scaled-e1755625666505.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-19T18:47:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-03T16:46:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/centerforwaterpolicy\\\/data-centers-consume-massive-amounts-of-water-companies-rarely-tell-the-public-exactly-how-much\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/centerforwaterpolicy\\\/data-centers-consume-massive-amounts-of-water-companies-rarely-tell-the-public-exactly-how-much\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/centerforwaterpolicy\\\/data-centers-consume-massive-amounts-of-water-companies-rarely-tell-the-public-exactly-how-much\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/centerforwaterpolicy\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/667\\\/2025\\\/08\\\/Pie-Chart-PDF-scaled-e1755625666505.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/centerforwaterpolicy\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/667\\\/2025\\\/08\\\/Pie-Chart-PDF-scaled-e1755625666505.jpg\",\"width\":1950,\"height\":1260},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/centerforwaterpolicy\\\/data-centers-consume-massive-amounts-of-water-companies-rarely-tell-the-public-exactly-how-much\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/centerforwaterpolicy\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/centerforwaterpolicy\\\/category\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Data Centers Consume Massive Amounts of Water \u2013 Companies Rarely Tell the Public Exactly How\u00a0Much\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/centerforwaterpolicy\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/centerforwaterpolicy\\\/\",\"name\":\"Center for Water Policy\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/centerforwaterpolicy\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Data Centers Consume Massive Amounts of Water \u2013 Companies Rarely Tell the Public Exactly How\u00a0Much - Center for Water Policy","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/data-centers-consume-massive-amounts-of-water-companies-rarely-tell-the-public-exactly-how-much\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Data Centers Consume Massive Amounts of Water \u2013 Companies Rarely Tell the Public Exactly How\u00a0Much","og_description":"In a recent article for\u00a0The Conversation, Peyton McCauley, Water Policy Specialist, and Professor Melissa Scanlan, Director, of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee\u2019s Center for Water Policy\u00a0examined the growing water demands of data centers driven by artificial intelligence, and why transparency and …","og_url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/data-centers-consume-massive-amounts-of-water-companies-rarely-tell-the-public-exactly-how-much\/","og_site_name":"Center for Water Policy","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uwmwaterpolicy\/","article_published_time":"2025-08-19T18:47:13+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-09-03T16:46:40+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1950,"height":1260,"url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/667\/2025\/08\/Pie-Chart-PDF-scaled-e1755625666505.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/data-centers-consume-massive-amounts-of-water-companies-rarely-tell-the-public-exactly-how-much\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/data-centers-consume-massive-amounts-of-water-companies-rarely-tell-the-public-exactly-how-much\/"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"Data Centers Consume Massive Amounts of Water \u2013 Companies Rarely Tell the Public Exactly How\u00a0Much","datePublished":"2025-08-19T18:47:13+00:00","dateModified":"2025-09-03T16:46:40+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/data-centers-consume-massive-amounts-of-water-companies-rarely-tell-the-public-exactly-how-much\/"},"wordCount":90,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/data-centers-consume-massive-amounts-of-water-companies-rarely-tell-the-public-exactly-how-much\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/667\/2025\/08\/Pie-Chart-PDF-scaled-e1755625666505.jpg","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/data-centers-consume-massive-amounts-of-water-companies-rarely-tell-the-public-exactly-how-much\/","url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/data-centers-consume-massive-amounts-of-water-companies-rarely-tell-the-public-exactly-how-much\/","name":"Data Centers Consume Massive Amounts of Water \u2013 Companies Rarely Tell the Public Exactly How\u00a0Much - Center for Water Policy","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/data-centers-consume-massive-amounts-of-water-companies-rarely-tell-the-public-exactly-how-much\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/data-centers-consume-massive-amounts-of-water-companies-rarely-tell-the-public-exactly-how-much\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/667\/2025\/08\/Pie-Chart-PDF-scaled-e1755625666505.jpg","datePublished":"2025-08-19T18:47:13+00:00","dateModified":"2025-09-03T16:46:40+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/data-centers-consume-massive-amounts-of-water-companies-rarely-tell-the-public-exactly-how-much\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/data-centers-consume-massive-amounts-of-water-companies-rarely-tell-the-public-exactly-how-much\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/data-centers-consume-massive-amounts-of-water-companies-rarely-tell-the-public-exactly-how-much\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/667\/2025\/08\/Pie-Chart-PDF-scaled-e1755625666505.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/667\/2025\/08\/Pie-Chart-PDF-scaled-e1755625666505.jpg","width":1950,"height":1260},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/data-centers-consume-massive-amounts-of-water-companies-rarely-tell-the-public-exactly-how-much\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/category\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Data Centers Consume Massive Amounts of Water \u2013 Companies Rarely Tell the Public Exactly How\u00a0Much"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/#website","url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/","name":"Center for Water Policy","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":""}]}},"acf":[],"meta_fields":{"_edit_lock":["1756918005:38548"],"_thumbnail_id":["2939"],"_edit_last":["38548"],"feat_img_video":[""],"feat_img_gallery":[""],"feat_img_caption":["feat-img-caption-on"],"breadcrumbs_display":["breadcrumbs-on"],"otp_nav_display":["otp-on-mobile"],"post_layout":["post-layout-theme"],"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":["11"],"_yoast_wpseo_focuskeywords":[""],"_yoast_wpseo_keywordsynonyms":[""],"_yoast_wpseo_estimated-reading-time-minutes":["1"],"_yoast_indexnow_last_ping":["1756918001"],"_uwm_wg_content_review_log":["a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:11:\"reviewer_id\";i:0;s:6:\"status\";s:5:\"reset\";s:10:\"entry_date\";s:19:\"2026-03-01 02:13:32\";s:16:\"priority_content\";s:0:\"\";s:4:\"note\";s:43:\"Content review reset at start of new cycle.\";}}"]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39575"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2933"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2935,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2933\/revisions\/2935"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/centerforwaterpolicy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}