Data Drain: The Land and Water Impacts of the AI Boom - Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
Communities across the US are wooing data centers with tax breaks and other incentives. But data centers are resource-ravenous, creating demands for land, water, and power that many host communities are not prepared to meet.
Data Drain: The Land and Water Impacts of the AI Boom - Lincoln Institute of Land Policy In this Section Land Lines Magazine Current Issue All Issues All Articles Land Lines en español Also Available in Data Drain: The Land and Water Impacts of the AI Boom By Jon Gorey , October 17, 2025 SHARE A low hum emerges from within a vast, dimly lit tomb, whose occupant devours energy and water with a voracious, inhuman appetite. The beige, boxy data center is a vampire of sorts—pallid, immortal, thirsty. Sheltered from sunlight, active all night. And much like a vampire, at least according to folklori
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