Session Lead: Kevin Sellner (Hood College Center for Coastal And Watershed Studies)

Co-Lead(s): Charles Bott

Session Format: Oral presentations

Session Description: 

The huge proliferation of data centers in the CB watershed raises many concerns on water and air quality and options to address these expanding environmental and human health threats. Water demand (is there sufficient source water for ALL users with the >700 data center demand), discharged water quality (center additives, purposely added or resulting from operations), emissions (from diesel-powered generators at each center building), noise threats to children, extreme stormwater runoff (erosion, damage to buffers, floodplains, neighboring properties and wells, including loss of recharge areas), hazard spills and groundwater and soil contamination, terrestrial degradation/fragmentation from transmission line construction/operation, and habitat and biota losses are some of the threats specific to the watershed’s current and future conditions. Other areas, such as loss of property values, e-waste, inadequate regional power supplies are also well-documented. Regional experts will address documented impacts and solutions to protect the bay, watershed, and residents.

Presentations (Session 4 Abstracts)

  1. Kevin Sellner: Data Centers and Water, Air, and Environmental Impacts and Solutions
  2. Lauren Barbir: Data Centers: the water-energy nexus
  3. Michael College, P.E.: From Megawatts to Megabytes: Advancing Dry Cooling Success in the Susquehanna River Basin
  4. Charles Bott, Alexandria Gagnon, Kevin Sellner: Understanding the Impact of Discharges from Data Centers on Wastewater Treatment Plants: Fundamentals and Potential Impacts
  5. Kendra Sveum: Data Center Effluent Case Study: Operations Impacts on a Wastewater Treatment Plant
  6. Larry Band, Rouyu Zhang, Tejendra Kandel, Lauren Bridges, Joao Ferreira: Watersheds and Data Center Development Impacts
  7. Allison Welch, Daniel Koval: Global Data, Local Impacts: How data center development is changing your local landscape
  8. Nafiseh Salehi: Spatial Determinants and Future Patterns of U.S. Data Centers Development
  9. Julia Davis, Landon Marston, Majid Shafiee-Jood: A Review of Data Center Water Use, Methodological Gaps, and Policy Implications
  10. Lauren Barbir: Data Centers: Trends and innovation for water use for a circular economy