The sign outside Tom Hermes' farmyard in Perkins Township, Ohio, proudly states his family has farmed the land since 1900. He now raises 130 cattle and grows crops on 1,200 acres. When Aligned Data Centers broke ground on a 200,000 sq ft facility on adjacent land in May 2024, he grew concerned about water pressure.
The company, based in Texas, invested about $202m in a hyperscale data centre that will employ 18 people. It claims to use a closed-loop air-cooled system, but AI and machine-learning processes still rely on water for cooling. Meanwhile, just ten minutes north, Lake Erie's shoreline has not been this low in years.
Water levels across all five Great Lakes have fallen by two to four feet since 2019. Experts say this is a natural decrease from record highs, but it coincides with the arrival of data centres, which consume vast amounts of water. The Great Lakes, already struggling with drought and warmer temperatures, now face additional demand.
In Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, Microsoft is building a data centre expected to use 8.4 million gallons of municipal water annually, sourced from Lake Michigan. Similar projects are planned in Indiana and Michigan. In Woodville Township, Ohio, hundreds protested a proposed data centre last October.
Kirsten James of Ceres, a nonprofit, noted that the region is among the most data-centre-dense in the US. Data centres consume about 300,000 gallons of water daily, according to Purdue University. Even closed-loop systems need millions of gallons, and heated effluent can harm local ecosystems.
