Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) brought two mason jars filled with murky brown water to a congressional hearing last week, asserting they represented the current drinking water quality in Morgan County, Georgia, following the construction of a Meta data center. The New York Democrat presented the samples during a session of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, which focused on complaints related to the Stanton Springs industrial area east of Atlanta.
"This is not just inconvenience." — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Democrat
During her questioning of Jessica Kramer, the EPA’s assistant administrator for water, Ocasio-Cortez stated, “I think both of us can agree that neither one of these things are drinkable.” She claimed the samples were collected during a personal visit to Morgan County earlier that month and that residents in the rural area were experiencing falling water pressure, broken appliances, and were forced to ship in water for basic household needs. “This is not just inconvenience,” Ocasio-Cortez declared, demanding EPA and Congressional investigations.
Assistant Administrator Kramer, who had earlier informed the subcommittee that she had not received any complaints directly linking data center construction to drinking water contamination, responded to Ocasio-Cortez’s presentation by saying, “As soon as I get back to the office, I will be looking into exactly what you’ve just talked about. Because anywhere, whether it is […] whatever type of construction it is, it is a priority to ensure that water quality standards established by EPA are being met.”
However, the extent of the water issues in Morgan County appears to be more limited than implied by the congressional presentation. According to reporting by The New York Times, the problems documented near the data center have affected only four homes, not the broader county community. The Joint Development Authority of Jasper, Morgan, Newton, and Walton Counties, which manages the industrial park housing Meta’s facilities, acknowledged that no well water study was conducted before construction commenced. Ben Sheidler, a spokesperson for the JDA, suggested to the Times that “The timing of the problems could be a coincidence.”
Ocasio-Cortez also used the hearing to challenge President Donald Trump’s executive orders aimed at accelerating data center construction, particularly “when we know that water quality is encountering major issues.” The broader discussion around data center water consumption, however, often faces scrutiny when compared to other industries. For instance, in Maricopa County, Arizona, a region facing significant water stress, data centers are projected to consume approximately 900 million gallons of freshwater in 2025. In contrast, golf courses in the same county are anticipated to consume 29 billion gallons during that period. Even if AI data center water consumption triples by 2030, it would remain a fraction of the water used by other sectors, currently accounting for just 3.3 percent of the water consumption of all golf courses in the United States.
Furthermore, investigative reporting has not surfaced any instances where data center operations have demonstrably raised household water bills anywhere in America. This holds true for Loudoun County, Virginia, which hosts the world’s largest concentration of data centers, and for The Dalles, Oregon, where a substantial 29 percent of the city’s water supply flows to a Google facility.
The economic benefits associated with data center expansion are significant, particularly for American tradespeople. Mike Rowe, founder of the mikeroweWORKS Foundation, recently highlighted this during a visit to a data center in Plano, Texas. He met three electricians under 30 years old, each reportedly earning around $260,000 annually without a college degree or student debt. Rowe noted the high demand for these skills, stating, “The most consequential component of that meeting was the fact that all three of them had been poached three times in the prior 18 months. It’s like the draft in the major leagues.” In Virginia alone, the data center industry is estimated to contribute 74,000 jobs, $5.5 billion in labor income, and $9.1 billion in GDP annually. For every data center job created, an estimated 3.5 additional jobs are generated in the surrounding local economy, underscoring their broader economic impact.
