BESSEMER, Ala.—Developers of a proposed hyperscale data center may find themselves lacking a resource essential for the operation of what would be one of the largest such facilities in the United States: water.
Public documents obtained by Inside Climate News reveal that the Warrior River Water Authority, the utility that serves the area where the 4.5 million-square-foot facility is proposed to be located, has said that it could not provide the requested water flow of 2 million gallons per day without “significant upgrades to the existing water system.”
“Warrior River Water Authority has existing mains along Rock Mountain Lake Road where water service can be provided but not at the requested demand,” said a letter from the utility to the engineering firm the developer hired.
The document reveals for the first time an estimate of water usage provided by the developer or its representatives. An earlier estimate of 2 billion gallons per day had surfaced in a county planning document but had not been confirmed or denied by the developer, Logistic Land Investments LLC.
Even water usage of 2 million gallons per day would likely place the facility among the largest consumers of water in the region with the exception of power plants, straining the capacity of what residents have said they consider an already unreliable water utility.
Publicly available information suggests that the Warrior River Water Authority’s supply capacity is around 6 million gallons per day. Usage of 2 million gallons per day, then, would amount to a third of the utility’s water supply if capacity is not increased to accommodate the facility.
The 2 million gallons of water a day requested by the developer is equivalent to the typical usage of around 6,700 households, about two-thirds of Bessemer’s entire population, based on the water utility’s consumption estimates.
Charles Miller, policy director for the Alabama Rivers Alliance, said that the lack of public information about the proposed data center’s water usage is concerning, particularly in a state that lacks a comprehensive water plan.
“The lack of clarity around how much water this project will use is the product of one thing: the secrecy of this developer, and whatever big tech company is actually behind this,” Miller said. “Secrecy is a big reason that the residents of Bessemer and the other people in this community where the data center is proposed are so upset. When they have questions, nobody is giving them a straight answer.”
Public officials in Bessemer, including its mayor and city attorney, have confirmed they’ve signed non-disclosure agreements related to the project, limiting the amount of information available to residents about the proposal, which would include the construction of 18 buildings on a now-wooded 700-acre site—with each building larger than an average Walmart Supercenter.
Miller has also expressed his concerns about the project’s proposed water consumption in a letter to leaders at Central Alabama Water, formerly the Birmingham Water Works Board. That utility, which provides water to residents in the Birmingham metro area, shares a water source—the Mulberry Fork of the Black Warrior River—with the Warrior River Water Authority.
“All of the numbers we’ve seen would represent a significant withdrawal from the Mulberry Fork, and would likely have an impact on this utility,” Miller said in the letter. “I would urge the board to contact the Warrior River Water Authority and come to an agreement that our source waters in the Mulberry Fork are protected.”
In its letter to the engineering firm, the general manager of the Warrior River Water Authority wrote that the upgrades necessary to provide the requested amount of water would take significant time and would require firm obligations from the developer about usage and infrastructure investments.
Although some improvements could be completed relatively quickly, those needed to supply 2 million gallons of water a day will take longer, the letter said: “Due to the large volume of usage requested by this project, agreements will be needed to assure the usage will match this commitment and the Authority’s investment in additional infrastructure.”
Developers have refused to disclose an end user for the proposed data center, but the scale of the project leaves only a few large technology companies as realistic customers, including Amazon, Microsoft, Apple and Google.
Google already operates a data center in Jackson County, Alabama. According to the company’s 2025 environmental report, that facility consumes more than 182 million gallons of water per day.
Residents universally opposed the project at a recent Bessemer zoning commission meeting, citing environmental impacts—including the potential risk to the imperilled Birmingham darter, a newly identified fish species—among their top concerns.
“This is a vampire that will drain all of our natural resources,” one resident told commissioners. “It is something that is unwanted.”
Despite that pushback, however, zoning commissioners recommended approval of the developer’s plan to the city council, which is scheduled to consider the proposal at its July 15 meeting.
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Reporter, Alabama
Lee Hedgepeth is Inside Climate News’ Alabama reporter. Raised in Grand Bay, Alabama, a small town on the Gulf Coast, Lee holds master’s degrees in community journalism and political development from the University of Alabama and Tulane University. Lee is the founder of Tread, a newsletter of Southern journalism, and has also worked for news outlets across Alabama, including CBS 42, Alabama Political Reporter and the Anniston Star. His reporting has focused on issues impacting members of marginalized groups, including homelessness, poverty, and the death penalty. His award-winning journalism has appeared in publications across the country and has been cited by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, among others.
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