The building of a hyperscale data center in northeast Pennsylvania hit a milestone earlier this month with an interstate agency’s approval of its request to use more water from the Susquehanna River.

The Susquehanna River Basin (SRBC) gave a green light for Amazon Data Services to use 129,000 gallons of water per day (gpd) for consumptive use at its massive data center tied to the Susquehanna Nuclear Power Plant in Luzerne County. Consumptive refers to water lost to evaporation such as for cooling towers and not returned to the river basin.

As data center projects proliferate across Pennsylvania, a debate is underway in Harrisburg about whether demands for both water and electric power by data centers will conflict with consumer needs.

Data centers generate a lot of heat with their high-speed computing. They need water to dissipate the heat to avoid harm to the servers.

Amazon’s is the first data center water application approved by SRBC.

Many other data center projects are located in the basin ranging south from the Scranton area to the Harrisburg and Lancaster metro areas.

Amazon applied for a 277,000 gpd consumptive use threshold, but that was reduced to 129,000 gpd after the commission’s review. Amazon was initially permitted for 60,000 gpd for three buildings as construction started in 2024.

The 129,000 gpd threshold represents peak use on the hottest days and is comparable to that used by small manufacturers in the area, said Amazon spokeswoman Nicole Morales.

Amazon plans to use water for evaporative cooling during the summer months, SRBC said.

SRBC submits water applications to a scientific review, the agency said. The staff evaluates applications to determine if the projected demand is realistic for the proposed facility. Hydrologists, geologists and engineers review the application.

Public water supply

Amazon also has an agreement to use the publicly-owned Pennsylvania-American Water Company’s Berwick system as a primary water source.

“Amazon is fully financing the extension of a water main to support its facility, which is currently under construction,” said Pennsylvania American spokeswoman Alana Roberts. “During typical operating conditions, Amazon can use up to 1.5 million gallons per day (MGD) on average-demand days and about 1.0 MGD on peak-demand days.”

“However, for most of the year, Amazon’s water consumption is expected to be much lower. Amazon will be charged at the applicable commercial rate per the Pennsylvania American Water tariff,” she said.

Total annual water consumption by all the data centers at the site will be approximately four million gallons per year, said Morales

Amazon is building and funding the infrastructure tied to its water use from Pennsylvania-American, said Morales. Amazon is extending a water line to provide new water service to more than 150 nearby households, she added.

A long-time Harrisburg activist predicts Amazon’s water needs will only increase.

“Amazon has low-balled water requests since August 2024,” said Eric Epstein of the watchdog group, Three Mile Island Alert. “Their actual water needs have been met by building a 14-mile pipeline to access public water and by making supplemental requests. As Amazon’s data centers increase, so will the pressure on public water and the Susquehanna River.”

In a filing with SRBC, Epstein said that Amazon’s water needs for a full build out are unknown and the company masked the situation by declaring it confidential business information.

Dry cooling technology

The SRBC adopted a resolution last year urging data centers and energy firms to use dry cooling technology which uses ambient air to cool and condense steam, thus reducing the need to draw water from rivers.

“The Commission will prioritize the review of projects utilizing the dry cooling and hybrid dry cooling technologies for reducing consumptive water use,” the resolution said.

“Amazon is using a form of hybrid cooling,” said SRBC spokeswoman Stacy Hanrahan. “They will be using dry cooling for many months of the year, and then use hybrid cooling technology during the hottest months. They have implemented water-saving technology that we advocate for and encourage in our Dry Cooling Resolution.”

“In this region, our data centers are designed to use outside air for cooling approximately 98 percent of the year,” said Morales. “Water-based cooling is only activated during the hottest 2 percent of hours annually.”

SRBC response

To keep track of applications, SRBC created a data center and water use webpage at https://www.srbc.gov/regulatory/data-centers/ This includes a FAQ about Amazon’s application.

Pennsylvania is unique in having interstate agencies regulating both large water withdrawals and consumptive water use in large chunks of its territory.

The SRBC which also includes parts of New York and Maryland dates to 1970, a time of environmental concern about polluted rivers and lakes.

The Delaware River Basin Commission which also includes parts of New York, New Jersey and Delaware was created in 1961. A 1954 U.S. Supreme Court order allocating water rights in the populated area was a catalyst for the DRBC.

The two commissions wield powers not found with other river basin agencies throughout the nation.