Neighbors of a data center in Georgia are outraged after discovering the facility had siphoned off nearly 30 million gallons of water without paying the initial cost.
Last year, anger began to bubble when residents of Anneli’s Park, a wealthy subdivision in Fayetteville, Georgia, noticed unusually low water pressure.
During an investigation by the county’s utility company, officials discovered two industrial-scale water hookups were supplying water to the data center’s campus, located 32 miles south of downtown Atlanta. One water connection was installed without the utility’s knowledge, and the other wasn’t billed because it wasn’t linked to the company’s account.
All told, the developer, Quality Technology Services Inc., owes nearly $150,000 for using more than 29 million gallons of unused water. This is the equivalent of 44 Olympic-sized pools, far exceeding the peak limits agreed upon during the data center planning process.
The details were revealed in a letter dated May 15, 2025, from the Fayette County Water System to Quality Technology Services, outlining a retroactive bill of $147,474. The letter does not specify how many months the unpaid bills will cover, but Fayette County Water System Director Vanessa Tygart, when asked Wednesday, said it was probably about four months.
A QTS spokesperson said in an email that the data center paid all retroactive charges once it was notified, noting that the unmetered water consumption occurred while the county was converting its system to smart meters.
The Fayette County Water System has confirmed that its data center meters are now fully integrated and tracked. Tygart, the water system director, blamed the problem on a procedural mix-up.
“Fayette County is suburban, mostly residential, and we don’t have a lot of commercial meters in our system anyway,” she said. “So we didn’t realize that the connection point wasn’t working.”
The incident became public last week when county residents obtained the 2025 letter to QTS through a public records request and posted it on Facebook, sparking outrage from residents concerned about the data center’s water consumption.
The Fayetteville campus will be one of the largest data center developments in the country, with up to 16 buildings on 615 acres. The campus is currently partially operational.
County officials say the campus will generate tens of millions of dollars in annual property taxes, but the facility’s sheer size and demands for water and electricity have helped galvanize local opposition to building more data centers. Fayetteville City Council voted last month to ban new data centers in all zoning districts within the city.
Georgia is home to more than 200 data center facilities, and the state’s thirst for water is turning into a political flashpoint. The entire state is in moderate-to-high drought, and Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency last month after Georgia’s worst wildfire outbreak in years.
One resident said frustration with the data center boiled over after local authorities told residents in the area to reduce their water usage.
“We received notice from the Fayette County water system that we must stop watering our lawns to conserve water,” said attorney and property advocate James Clifton, who obtained the 2025 letter and shared it with QTS.
“So the first thing they do is ask individuals and residents to stop consuming water when we have QTS that is completely consuming us — most months, QTS is the No. 1 consumer of water in the county,” said Clifton, who is running for a seat on the Fayette County Commission.
QTS, a major data center developer with facilities across the country, disputes the accusations.
The company, owned by private equity firm Blackstone, touts a “closed-loop” cooling system that uses no water for cooling. Like laptops and cell phones, chips housed in data centers are prone to overheating and typically require large amounts of water to cool them.
The company said last year’s water usage was so high because of temporary construction-related activities such as concrete work, dust control and site preparation.
The company said that once the data center is up and running, it will only use water for domestic purposes, such as bathrooms and kitchens. The spokesperson said this is equivalent to the amount used by four U.S. households in a month.
However, that may not happen for another few years. The company is still actively building and expanding its Fayetteville data center campus. The aim is to complete the project within three to five years.
Tygart, who sent the 2025 letter to QTS, said the utility did not know about the water connection because the connection process was “disrupted” as the county transitioned to a cloud-based system while also trying to accommodate industrial customers. Tygart also said her staff is small and at capacity.
“Like other water systems, we’re short staffed. We can’t keep our staff,” she said. “There’s one person responsible for testing and reviewing plans, so that person is pretty spread out.”
She said staff may have known about the affair but could not find the inspection report. “I may have pressed ‘send’ too soon,” she said of the 2025 letter to QTS.
Although the utility charged the data center higher construction fees for unapproved water consumption, Tygart acknowledged that the utility did not impose penalties or fines on the data center.
Some residents are confused by the decision.
“It’s really frustrating to see them come into our community and attack us as if our citizens don’t matter, and then when they break the law, they’re above the law,” Clifton said.
Gregory Pearce, director of the UCLA Water Resources Group, said it was unusual for the utility not to fine the data center for violating the rules.
“I don’t know exactly what’s going on here, but they probably don’t want to upset one of their new biggest customers,” said Pierce, who has studied data centers’ increasing control over local water systems.
Tygart defended the utility’s decision not to impose a fine.
“They are our biggest customers and we have to be partners,” she said. “It’s called customer service.”
Miranda Wilson contributed to this report.
