Nebraska Forces Data Centers to Disclose Water Use
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- Nebraska Legislature passed a law requiring data centers to report annual water use and power demand to the state, with the Department of Water, Energy, and Environment directed to identify remaining information gaps.
- Jesse Bradley, director of the Department of Water, Energy, and Environment, called the legislation a "great start" that will help with future planning.
- Nebraska currently has no official count of how many data centers operate in the state, and water usage data has only come from companies that voluntarily disclose it.
- Google's Nebraska data centers consumed about 732 million gallons of water in 2025, according to the company, which expects its water consumption from data centers to grow.
- Meta's four-million-square-foot Sarpy County data center withdrew between 26.7 million and 37.5 million gallons annually from the local water supply between 2020 and 2024.
- Data centers use evaporative cooling systems that consume large amounts of water or closed-loop systems that use less water but more electricity, with the optimal choice depending on local climate and resources, according to UC Santa Barbara professor Eric Masanet.
- John Winkler, general manager of the Papio-Missouri River Natural Resource District, argued against siting data centers in water-insecure areas, saying it "doesn't make sense."
Why it matters: The new mandate arrives as data center expansion pushes into rural and drought-prone parts of Nebraska, where agriculture already dominates water use. Companies like Google (732 million gallons in 2025) and Meta (up to 37.5 million gallons annually) will now face state-level reporting requirements, and regulators gain the data needed to weigh future siting decisions against water scarcity.
