Demand for water in Great Lakes states is likely to spike from data centers, mining and other uses, and officials should take a more proactive management approach to stave off shortages, according to a new report published by the nonprofit Alliance for the Great Lakes.
Municipalities will need more information about usage, and potentially will need stricter mandates, to ensure that water is used sustainably, said report author Helena Volzer, senior source water policy manager for the Chicago-based organization.
“There’s no state in the region right now that really has the ability to curb or halt groundwater use before an adverse impact occurs,” she said. And it’s hard to even know exactly how much water is being withdrawn because so little is reported, she noted.
Hyper-scale data centers that power generative artificial intelligence, for example, can use up to 365 million gallons of water a year to cool facilities. Many Great Lakes states offer financial incentives for data center developers, yet companies often ask for non-disclosure agreements with municipalities so the amount of water they’re allotted is kept private.
The number of data centers in Illinois ranks it fourth in the nation and tops in the region, the alliance said. More keep coming.
Industries that historically operated in the region, like manufacturing and steel production, often withdrew water for their operations themselves. But 97 percent of data centers get their water from municipal sources, according to a report by Bluefield Research. Instead of just approving those proposals, Volzer said state and local governments should conduct regional planning and water demand studies to ensure there’s enough water for both industry and residents in the future.
Once the data centers are in place, she said, municipalities should also require the operators to track and report their water use. Less than a third of data centers currently do that because no one mandates it, she said.
“The policy recommendations that we’re making with respect to data centers are applicable to whoever the large water user ends up being, whether it’s a semiconductor chip manufacturer or data center,” Volzer said.
Mining for cobalt, nickel and copper is another water-intensive industry that could further strain the region’s water resources. Mining may ramp up near Lake Superior, where those minerals exist, if demand increases and higher tariffs push companies to source them from the U.S. As with data centers, there’s no clear water reporting requirement for mines, the Alliance for the Great Lakes said. Meanwhile, tailings ponds filled with contaminated material could seep into groundwater and threaten water supplies.
The third sector included in the report—agriculture—is regulated under groundwater management laws, yet those vary state by state. And more farmers in the region are turning to irrigation as climate change makes conditions more unpredictable and worsens droughts.
In Michigan, for example, the amount of land that farmers irrigated nearly doubled from 2003 to 2023, increasing from more than 432,000 acres to more than 850,000, the Michigan State University Extension reported. During a major Midwest drought in 2012, farmers also increased groundwater pumping capacity, making it difficult to know what the consequences will be when another such drought occurs.
“We tend to think the Great Lakes are an inexhaustible resource of water, but if you look at the region as a whole, there are these more local and regional water limitations,” said Aaron Packman, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northwestern University and the co-director of the Northwestern Center for Water Research. “The topics that are identified in this report really highlight that new water-intensive industries would put additional pressure on those water resources.”
The Great Lakes Compact, an agreement between states and Canadian provinces that border the water bodies, limits water diversions outside of the basin and dictates certain uses. Even so, regulating water in the region is complicated. In Cook County alone, where Chicago is located, more than 100 governmental entities have some responsibility for managing water.
Volzer suggests that state laws change to accommodate the increase in water demand. “There’s a need for a more proactive, long-term, forward-thinking approach that places an emphasis on sustainability and water resources,” she said.
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