Overview
- Amazon disclosed on Thursday that its global data center operations withdrew about 2.5 billion gallons of water in 2025 and reported a water‑usage effectiveness of 0.12 liters per kilowatt-hour.
- Seattle’s city council this week imposed a one‑year moratorium on new large data centers inside city limits as public opposition and local planning reviews increase.
- The company says roughly 90% of cooling uses outside air and that it switches to evaporative water cooling only during the hottest hours, a mix it says helps lower per‑unit water use.
- Amazon’s numbers exclude some indirect uses such as water at power plants and construction-phase withdrawals, a methodological gap that regulators and researchers say prevents clear local comparisons.
- Amazon reported it is about 75% of the way to a 2030 ‘water positive’ goal and is expanding reclaimed‑water projects, but UNU‑INWEH projections of rising sector demand keep pressure on policy, siting and community protections.