Bill proposes more scrutiny for water usage at large data centers

The Minnesota House of Representatives proposed Bill HF3007 under the sponsorship of Rep. Peter Fischer. The bill aims to allow the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to impose extra scrutiny on proposed data centers expected to consume over 100 million gallons of water annually or 250,000 gallons daily. This legislation arises from concerns about the substantial water usage of large data centers, particularly those being sought by major tech companies including Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft. A budget of $300,000 has been allocated to develop a water availability atlas to assist in assessing water resource needs for these centers.