Columbus explores recycling water for data centers
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Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
Columbus is exploring a plan to use reclaimed wastewater to operate local data centers, removing the need to send drinking water to the facilities.
Why it matters: The increasing number of Central Ohio data centers require massive amounts of water, but so does the area's rapidly growing population.
State of play: The Midwest, and our region in particular, has become a data center hot spot.
- There are dozens of operational facilities, with more planned.
- They require immense electricity and water, and are a contributing factor in Columbus' $1.6 billion investment in a fourth water plant to increase capacity.
How it works: Wastewater plants clean liquid waste to a level slightly below drinking quality before sending it back into a river.
- Reclamation systems start there — instead of returning to the watershed, treated water can be distributed back to facilities that don't need drinking-quality water.
- Division of Water administrator John Newsome tells Axios reclaimed could be cheaper, too, depending on rates and treatment costs.
Reclaimed water may not go through the rigorous drinking water process, but it is filtered and cleaned.
- It's typically safe to consume and can even meet drinking water standards in some parts of the country.
- And it's not just for data centers — it can be used for manufacturing, construction, agriculture and more.
Reality check: The idea is very early in the planning process, and the green light would require adjusted water regulations, millions in funding, buy-in from multiple levels of government and the cooperation of data center companies.
- "We'd have to have partners willing to financially contribute to the project," Newsome says.
Across the country, companies have been willing to do just that as a cost-saving measure and to reduce water system strain.
- Google's Georgia facilities were among the first to see this kind of cooperation. Microsoft partnered with Quincy, Washington, on a $31 million facility.
- Amazon, which operates the most data centers in the area, publicly boasts about its recycled water use.
The bottom line: While creative water solutions are common out west, Ohio is one of many states in the region reckoning with new and increasing water needs. Introducing a reclamation project could start a trend.
- "A lot of the Midwest states are kind of looking toward us and how we're doing things," Newsome says.