Can Utah become a data center hub without draining its water supply?Gov. Spencer Cox says conservation and tech don’t have to clash. But Utah�...

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Can Utah become a data center hub without draining its water supply?
Gov. Spencer Cox says conservation and tech don’t have to clash. But Utah’s push to attract data centers — fueled by AI demand — is raising questions about just how much water they actually use.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) A data center, being built by QTS, begins to take shape west to the Meta facility in Eagle Mountain on Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) A data center, being built by QTS, begins to take shape west to the Meta facility in Eagle Mountain on Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025.

In late September, Gov. Spencer Cox stood on the shores of the drying Great Salt Lake, flanked by top legislative leaders and wealthy developers as he unveiled a new partnership he said could help refill Utah’s iconic inland sea in time for the 2034 Winter Olympics.

The lake needs to rise by more than six feet to reach a minimum healthy elevation, a goal that environmental advocates say would require years of substantially increased water flows.

At the same time, Utah’s elected leaders have pushed for the state to be a hub for data centers, facilities that for decades have relied on large amounts of water to keep their servers cool. Since 2021, Utah has added or announced plans for at least 15 new data center buildings or campuses, according to Data Center Map, and at least a few existing facilities grew their footprints over that time.

Asked by The Salt Lake Tribune how Cox squared those traditionally water-intensive industries with his Great Salt Lake goals, the governor appeared steamed.

“Most of the data centers do not consume water. This is a big misnomer out there,” Cox said in response.

He warned of rising electricity prices across the nation. He also praised nuclear energy and its ability to power desalination plants, which could someday free up an “abundance” of water in the world’s oceans. State leaders like Cox have also warned of a new global “arms race” over who will ultimately control artificial intelligence technologies and the energy they need.

“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,’” the governor continued, “that’s crazy talk.”

(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Gov. Spencer Cox speaks during a press conference to announce an initiative to save the Great Salt Lake at The Eccles Wildlife Education Center near Farmington on Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Gov. Spencer Cox speaks during a press conference to announce an initiative to save the Great Salt Lake at The Eccles Wildlife Education Center near Farmington on Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025.

On the Wasatch Front, tax incentives paved the way for mammoth data campuses like the one run by Meta, the tech company behind Facebook and Instagram. The rise of AI has spurred even more demand for the thirsty and energy-intensive campuses.

“Water is extremely cheap,” said Wes Swenson, CEO of Novva, which operates a data center campus in West Jordan. “And cities have generally accommodated that.”

It remains to be seen whether the governor’s assurances for the state will be reflected on the ground, or in a rising Great Salt Lake. How much water those campuses actually use can vary dramatically, a question at least one Utah lawmaker says needs closer scrutiny in the coming legislative session.

A new bill sponsored by Rep. Jill Koford (R-Ogden) would require data centers to report their water use to the state, and that information would then be aggregated and released publicly without identifying individual facilities.

Koford said this has been, for her and others, cause for concern.

The lawmaker agreed with Cox: Some new data centers are using water resources more responsibly, but some legacy facilities, she added, “not so much.”

“We really don’t have any statewide guardrails for reporting and transparency,” Koford said.

How much water are data centers consuming?
The Tribune requested records from the municipal water providers for all known data centers across the state and found that several Utah data centers are siphoning away vasts amount of water. The NSA data center in Bluffdale consumed more than 126 million gallons between October 2024 and September 2025. That’s around 390 acre-feet, or enough water to meet 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 over the same period, and the eBay data center in South Jordan used 19.5 million gallons.


But true to Cox’s assertion, some newer facilities use far less. The DataBank Granite Point campus in Bluffdale used a combined 7.7 million gallons over a 12-month period, just a fraction of the water used by the nearby NSA facility, even though the DataBank campus includes multiple buildings and has 2.5 times more data center space.
SOURCE:https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2026/01/12/does-utah-have-enough-water-be/?utm_campaign=Waterline%20Newsletter&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--gz-YRzzvpPHVFgsNYGcb3xu1koXuvk8tcHFKhUEslqKBuw8gAM9l4eqd27_fOEKqAw5vOcQ-1R89XFbNYRdsim9EtOA&_hsmi=398296233&utm_content=398292071&utm_source=hs_email&hsCtaTracking=d0b72870-5c51-4ff2-ba12-2a1a9de59bab%7C14f7f531-4d35-462f-88d6-76bf56ef370c

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