Utah's Data Center Boom vs. Great Salt Lake

In late September, Utah Governor Spencer Cox stood on the shores of the drying Great Salt Lake, flanked by legislative leaders and developers, to announce a new partnership aimed at refilling the iconic inland sea. The goal is ambitious: raise the lake by more than 6 feet to reach a minimum healthy elevation by the 2034 Winter Olympics. This initiative requires years of substantially increased water flows.

Simultaneously, the state is aggressively pursuing a different kind of growth. Utah has become a magnet for data centers, massive facilities that have traditionally relied on large amounts of water for cooling servers. Since 2021, the state has added or announced plans for at least 15 new data center buildings or campuses. This dual pursuit—saving a lake and building a tech hub—has ignited a complex debate over resource management in one of the driest states in the nation.

When questioned about how these water-intensive industries align with his Great Salt Lake goals, Governor Cox pushed back against the prevailing narrative. He asserted that the conflict is overstated, stating, "Most of the data centers do not consume water. This is a big misnomer out there." Cox framed the issue as part of a larger global competition for energy and artificial intelligence dominance.

The governor has embraced an initiative called "Operation Gigawatt" to more than double the state’s energy generation. He warned of rising electricity prices fueled by the AI boom and described a new global "arms race" over who will control these technologies. Cox argued that restricting energy use due to water concerns would be detrimental to national competitiveness.

"If you tell people, 'I’m sorry, you’re just not going to have any energy for the things that we need. We’re just going to have to give up and let China rule the world, because we can’t create energy because it uses some water,' that’s crazy talk."

At the Great Salt Lake unveiling, Cox also praised nuclear energy and its potential to power desalination plants, which could someday free up an "abundance" of water from the world’s oceans to support these growing needs.

Despite the governor's assurances, actual water consumption varies dramatically across the industry. Wes Swenson, CEO of Novva, noted that water is "extremely cheap" and that cities have generally accommodated data center requests. However, scrutiny is increasing. A review of records from municipal water providers revealed that several facilities are siphoning away vast amounts of water.

Specific consumption figures highlight the scale of the issue:

• NSA Data Center (Bluffdale): Consumed over 126 million gallons in one year, equivalent to the annual indoor needs of nearly 800 Utah households.
• Aligned Data Centers: Used 80 million gallons in West Valley and 47.4 million gallons in West Jordan.
• eBay Data Center (South Jordan): Used 19.5 million gallons.

However, newer facilities are demonstrating more efficient practices. The DataBank Granite Point campus in Bluffdale used only 7.7 million gallons over the same 12-month period. This is a fraction of the water used by the nearby NSA facility, despite the DataBank campus having 2.5 times more data center space across multiple buildings.

The disparity in water usage has prompted calls for greater oversight. State Representative Jill Koford, a Republican, has sponsored a new bill that would require data centers to report their water use to the state. This information would then be aggregated and released publicly, though individual facilities would not be identified.

Koford cited a lack of "statewide guardrails for reporting and transparency" as a primary concern. She noted that while some new data centers use resources responsibly, legacy facilities "not so much." The proposed legislation aims to bring data centers in line with other large water users.

"It’s such a new and emerging industry that we need to have a handle on it."

This move reflects a growing trend of local pushback. In 2022, Salt Lake City adopted an ordinance barring industries that use more than 200,000 gallons a day. While not targeting data centers specifically, the law was a response to rising proposals for water-intensive businesses amid dire regional water shortages.

Utah's dilemma is not isolated. Communities across the United States are increasingly pushing back against data center construction due to concerns about scarce water resources and rising energy costs. The tension is particularly acute in regions already facing high water stress.

According to a report by Data Center Watch, approximately $64 billion worth of data center projects nationwide were blocked by local bipartisan backlash in 2024. Furthermore, almost a third of the country’s data centers are located in areas with high or extremely high water stress. As Utah continues to navigate its dual identity as an environmental steward and a tech hub, the outcome of its policies will serve as a critical case study for the rest of the country.