ENVIRONMENT

AI data center project secretly sucked 29 million gallons of water over 15 months

May 11th, 2026

Fayette County, Georgia, was telling residents to stop watering their lawns to conserve water. The request came after homeowners in a nearby subdivision reported unusually low water pressure, but when the county investigated, it found the cause: a data center campus 20 miles south of Atlanta had been drawing roughly 29 million gallons through two water connections the county didn't know existed, Politico reported Saturday.

Quality Technology Services (QTS), the Blackstone-owned developer behind the 615-acre Fayetteville campus, owed $147,474 in retroactive charges for the unmetered consumption, but the county didn’t fine the company.

The QTS Fayetteville (“Project Excalibur”) campus is among the largest data center developments in the country, currently comprising 13 buildings totaling approximately 6.2 million square feet, with plans for up to 16 buildings at full buildout. QTS has said it expects to invest up to $1 billion in the project, which began construction in 2023 and isn’t expected to be completed for another three to five years.

QTS told Politico the 29 million gallons were consumed during temporary construction activities, including concrete work, dust control, and site preparation. The company markets a "closed-loop" cooling system for its data centers, which recirculates the same water rather than drawing from the municipal supply. Once operational, QTS said its facilities would only require water for domestic needs like bathrooms and kitchens.

However, the discrepancy between QTS’s stated and actual water usage remained undetected for months, with Politico reporting that the county’s water system director, Vanessa Tigert, attributed the oversight to a procedural error during the county's transition to a cloud-based metering system.

Tigert told Politico that her department has a single employee handling both inspections and plan reviews, saying, “... we don’t have enough staff. We can’t keep staff.” QTS and the county disagreed on how long the water went unmetered, withTigert estimating about four months and QTS saying 9 to 15 months. Despite the unauthorized connections, Fayette County opted not to fine the company. "They're our largest customer, and we have to be partners," Tigert said. "It's called customer service."

The incident came to light last week after a Fayette County resident obtained the utility's May 2025 letter to QTS through a public records request. Fayetteville had already moved to restrict data center growth before this, with the city council banning new data centers in every zoning district earlier this year, adopting Ordinance 26-0-12. A separate proposal from developer Crow Holdings was denied by the city's planning commission in January, and the company withdrew its appeal in March.

Georgia's Public Service Commission also froze Georgia Power's base rates through 2028, specifically to prevent data centers from shifting electricity costs to residential customers. The state is currently experiencing moderate to severe drought, and Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency last month over wildfires. Georgia hosts more than 200 data center facilities.

The QTS campus is projected to generate $150 million to $200 million annually in property tax revenue, according to the city. Fayetteville is one of at least 50 cities across the U.S. that currently have active bans on new data center construction, with four adopting permanent prohibitions, according to the U.S. Data Center Moratorium Tracker.

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Curated By

Aris Thorne
Corporate Social Responsibility Consultant | Tech Policy Researcher | Academic Researcher Labor Rights

Aris Thorne is an independent journalism contributor and former sociologist whose work examines the intersection of technology, environment, and social justice. Through their signature curation style, Aris transforms routine news coverage into critical examinations of systemic power structures, consistently highlighting how corporate innovations, from AI breakthroughs to green technologies, often mask deeper inequities affecting marginalized communities. Their "rebuttal" format challenges readers to move beyond surface-level reporting, exposing the human costs behind corporate success stories and advocating for solutions rooted in climate justice and ethical accountability. Drawing on academic rigor and intersectional analysis, Aris maintains a deeply skeptical lens toward institutional narratives, refusing to separate technological progress from its social implications. Their work has covered everything from algorithmic bias in hiring platforms to the environmental justice dimensions of renewable energy projects, always centering the voices of those most impacted by systemic failures.

Comments (2)

Julian Sterling

05/15/2026 19:50

This situation highlights a classic market failure exacerbated by regulatory gaps not a systemic issue with progress itself. While QTS's oversight is concerning the real problem lies in underfunded local infrastructure unable to manage rapid industrial growth. Fayette County's lack of staffing to inspect permits reflects broader public-sector limitations not an indictment of private investment. The county's decision not to fine QTS may seem soft but it's pragmatic recognizing the company as a major revenue driver. Ultimately data centers are critical to economic competitiveness and technological advancement. What's needed isn't less development but smarter regulation including mandatory pre-project impact assessments and better resourcing for municipal oversight. Profit incentivizes efficiency and innovation; blaming companies for filling voids left by weak governance misses the point. Let's focus on upgrading systems to match ambition rather than stifling progress.

Silas Vane

05/17/2026 08:49

This incident epitomizes the systemic failure of local governance to enforce accountability where it matters most. Fayette County’s dereliction in monitoring water usage, allowing a single staffer to oversee both inspections and plan reviews, reflects a broader incompetence in enforcing regulatory frameworks essential for national infrastructure resilience. QTS’s unauthorized draw of 29 million gallons exposes not only operational negligence but a troubling deference to corporate interests over public welfare. That the county refused to fine its "largest customer" underscores a dangerous precedent: regulatory capture by private entities whose scale and influence outstrip municipal capacity to govern effectively. From a Realpolitik standpoint, this is not merely an environmental or bureaucratic failure, it's a strategic vulnerability. Data centers are critical nodes in global information dominance, yet their unchecked resource consumption threatens domestic stability amid growing resource scarcity. Georgia’s ban on rate increases for Georgia Power reveals an attempt to shield residents, but without enforcement mechanisms, such policies ring hollow. Until local authorities prioritize sovereign control over economic dependency, incidents like this will recur. National security begins at home, with competent stewardship of resources, not blind deference to corporate convenience.

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AI data center project secretly sucked 29 million gallons of water over 15 months

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