The rapid growth of AI infrastructure in the Great Plains forces a confrontation between digital economic development and the preservation of critical groundwater resources.
Artificial intelligence data centers are increasingly concentrated across the Great Plains, creating a direct competition for water resources with the agricultural sector. New mapping data from Brockovich AI Data Center Reporting identifies multiple proposed and active facilities situated directly above or adjacent to the Ogallala Aquifer, a groundwater system that sustains approximately one-fifth of American agricultural production.
Texas and Wyoming have emerged as primary sites for this hyperscale investment, attracting developers with low land costs and access to power infrastructure. In Ector County, Texas, New Era Energy & Digital and Primary Digital Infrastructure are co-developing a 438-acre campus, while Microsoft continues its multiyear expansion plan in Cheyenne, Wyoming. These projects represent a broader trend of industrial growth that requires massive amounts of electricity and, in many configurations, significant volumes of water for thermal management.
Local governance is struggling to balance these economic incentives against long-term resource depletion. In Tom Green County, Texas, commissioners recently rejected a moratorium on data center development, despite public opposition to the Beacon Dove Creek project. This tension is mirrored in legislative halls, where Fermi Chief Site Development Officer Charlie Hamilton testified on water conservation before the Texas House Natural Resources Committee on June 24, 2026.
The technical diversity of these projects complicates the regulatory landscape, as cooling requirements vary by design. While some facilities, such as the Related Digital campus in Laramie County, Wyoming, utilize air-cooled systems to minimize consumption, others rely on evaporative towers that demand steady water supplies. Many developers have yet to disclose final cooling configurations, leaving local officials and agricultural stakeholders to assess the potential impact on groundwater levels without complete data.
Additional projects are currently moving through the planning stages, further intensifying the pressure on regional resources. The Prometheus Hyperscale Casper campus in Natrona County, Wyoming, targets a 2028 operational deadline, while the Skybox project in San Angelo, Texas, occupies 350 acres of city-owned land. These developments highlight the geographic preference for the Ogallala region, where the intersection of cheap land and energy infrastructure outweighs the risks of water scarcity for many corporate planners.
The Ogallala Aquifer spans eight states and functions as a non-renewable resource in many subregions. Sudeep Pasricha, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Colorado State University, noted that depletion rates in certain areas exceed 100,000 acre-feet per year, with nearly 27 percent of stored water already exhausted. Because the aquifer recharges at a rate of less than an inch per year, current extraction levels for both agriculture and industry are effectively mining a finite supply.
Developers maintain that the Great Plains remain an optimal location due to existing transmission networks and tax incentives. Benjamin Lee, a professor of electrical and systems engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, observed that site selection remains a multi-factor decision involving energy availability, land, and regulatory climate. This convergence of factors ensures that the region will remain a focal point for hyperscale development, regardless of the mounting scrutiny regarding water usage.
The economic trade-off between agricultural output and digital infrastructure is becoming increasingly stark as water tables drop. Farmers who rely on the aquifer for irrigation face rising costs as they drill deeper wells to reach receding water levels, a burden that may be exacerbated by the high-volume consumption of nearby data centers. If industrial water usage continues to grow without corresponding improvements in cooling efficiency, the resulting competition could force a shift in regional land-use policies to prioritize essential food production over data processing.
Future regulatory developments will likely focus on mandatory water-use disclosures and stricter zoning requirements for high-consumption facilities. Stakeholders should monitor upcoming project approvals in Wyoming and Texas as indicators of whether state-level oversight will tighten in response to sustained groundwater depletion.
At Global Business & Economics Journal, we contribute to the future of business and technology with news, innovative research, expert insights, and thought-provoking analysis.
