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

saved by

• Rakshita Jain

related reading

• The multifaceted challenge of powering AI | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technologynews.mit.edu
• ‘Roadmap’ shows the environmental impact of AI data center boom | Cornell Chroniclenews.cornell.edu
• AI has high data center energy costs — but there are solutions | MIT Sloanmitsloan.mit.edu
• No Data Centers In My Backyard - by Jasmine Sunjasmi.news
• The AI water issue is fake - Andy Masleyblog.andymasley.com
• Data Centers, Urban Heat, and AI Growthenvironment.yale.edu
• Power 2026 - Electricity Pricing in the Age of AIpower2026.ai
• No Data Centers In My Backyardsubstack.com
• No Data Centers In My Backyardjasmi.news
• Deep Dive: Economics of the AI Build-Out | Contrary Researchresearch.contrary.com
• Roadmap: The AI data center stack - Bessemer Venture Partnersbvp.com
• Data centers consume massive amounts of water – companies rarely tell the public exactly how muchtheconversation.com