Data center water consumption bill heading to Senate floor

BOISE — As data center projects across the state of Idaho have either already been established or are ramping up development, the Idaho Senate will soon consider legislation restricting how much water these facilities can consume in the years to come.

After passing out of the House in a 58-10 vote last week, House Bill 895 was brought before the Senate Resources & Environment Committee on Thursday by sponsor Rep. Britt Raybould, R-Rexburg, and passed onto the Senate floor with little comment from committee members.

Raybould said the legislation aims to restrict future data centers in the state from using evaporative water systems that release water vapor to dissipate heat. 

In the case of large 50-megawatt (MW) data centers, water consumption from these systems can be as high as 100 million gallons per year. While hybrid systems that use water cooling and air-cooling towers consume 40%-60% less water than evaporative systems, Raybould said it was still a “consumptive” cooling system. The alternatives to these options are “non-consumptive” or closed-loop systems.

“As a closed loop cycle, the water just moves through the system, as opposed to being lost to evaporation,” Raybould said.

If HB 895 becomes law, data centers that begin construction on or after July 1 may not use consumptive cooling systems unless there is an agreement with a municipality, an existing water district or a water and sewer district system.

By limiting the use of evaporative systems, the legislation would push data centers to use closed-loop systems that require about 100,000 gallons of water per year, Raybould said.

When determining what water rights will be made available to data centers, the director of the Idaho Department of Water Resources must report findings on whether a data center conflicts with public interest, is contrary to the conservation of water resources in the state and will adversely affect the local watershed or local area where the water source originated. 

“Ultimately, the state of Idaho will be able to make the determination about what actually qualifies,” Raybould said. “But for our purposes, we are establishing as a baseline non-consumptive use or contracting with that local water district.” 

Cynthia Gibson, speaking on behalf of the Idaho Conservation League, commended the legislation’s “proactive” approach to addressing what she described as one of the most significant environmental impacts of data centers.

Data Centers on the Horizon

Potential water usage was one of the key criticisms voiced by residents of Kuna following the 2022 announcement of a coming metadata center. At the time, Meta said it would offset 100% of its water usage through water restoration projects, as was previously reported by the Idaho Press.

In 2025, the Kuna City Council approved a rezoning request for a 620-acre Diode Ventures data center named Gemstone Technology Park, which remains in the early development stages.

Also in 2025, the U.S. Department of Energy selected Idaho Falls' Idaho National Laboratory as a site for a future AI data center.