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# The aquifier in the room
- URL: https://www.redeyebr.com/memphis-data-center-cooling/
- Published: 2026-03-16T22:35:03.000Z
- Updated: 2026-03-16T22:35:03.000Z
- Description: Memphis thought of a clever way to cool data centers: recycling wastewater
- Author: JR Ball
- Tags: Analysis, News

AI data centers are coming to Louisiana. **They consume water like small cities**. And the state has no requirement that they use anything other than drinking water supplies to cool their servers.

**Forward thinking:** Memphis found a smarter approach—**recycling treated wastewater** to cool xAI's Colossus supercomputer rather than tapping drinking water supplies.

- A single large data center can use as much water daily as a town of 50,000 people.
- Amazon has used recycled water at data centers since 2020, now across 20 U.S. locations. Google uses reclaimed water at a quarter of its campuses.
- Google's new data center in West Memphis—just across the river—uses recycled wastewater specifically to protect local drinking supplies.

**Why it matters:** Gov. Landry has made AI data centers a centerpiece of Louisiana's economic development strategy—and the deals are landing close to home. Meta's $10 billion campus is under construction in Richland Parish. Hut 8's $10 billion River Bend facility is coming to West Feliciana Parish, 35 miles north of Baton Rouge. Both draw from aquifers already under stress.

- Meta's facility is registered to consume up to **23 million gallons** daily—roughly the amount used by 17,000 residents.
- An LSU simulation found maximum pumping could drop groundwater levels more than 65 feet, risking land sinking and saltwater intrusion.
- **Saltwater intrusion into the Southern Hills Aquifer—Baton Rouge's sole drinking water source—is an existing, worsening problem** driven by decades of industrial overpumping.

**Bit of background:** xAI's Colossus initially pulled 3 million gallons of drinking water daily before community pressure forced a rethink. The wastewater plant that solved it was a quarter mile away the entire time. The solution came after the fight—not before.

**Key quote:** "There's no incentive for them to use less water because they don't have to pay for it, and it's not regulated or reported."—**Christopher Dalbom**, Tulane Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy.

**The bottom line:** Louisiana is actively courting some of the most water-intensive industrial facilities on the planet—without requiring them to protect the drinking water supplies residents depend on.

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