New England · v2
Data centers' growing water demand is immense, and poorly understood.
Drawdown fills that gap with quantitative hydrology. It lines up each facility's real lifecycle against the public hydrologic and regulatory record.
Why this matters
A single large AI data center can draw as much water in a day as an entire town.
1
large AI data center, up to 5 million gallons a day
10,000–50,000 people
the daily water use of a whole town, for comparison
Source: The Harvard Crimson, May 2026.
Reporters, officials, and researchers are saying the same thing
“You can't suck energy off the grid and hurt other ratepayers, and you can't do harm to our environment, especially when it comes to water.”
“Water and energy needs are monumental compared to their traditional counterparts.”
“We have this huge build out, and we have very little data.”
“We're watching a digital gold rush unfold, but we don't have the transparency.”
How this site works
Every number on this site is one of exactly three kinds. They are never blended together.
Time-aligned hydrologic data
Each facility's lifecycle (proposal, permitting, construction, operation) plotted against real readings from nearby USGS and NOAA stations.
Estimated facility water use
One formula per facility: capacity (MW) × industry water-use ratio for its cooling type, shown as a sourced range. See the exact math on the methodology page.
Attribution evidence
A scored judgment of whether the water table's behavior near each facility is consistent with its estimated draw — a fixed rubric with a published breakdown, on the methodology page.
Where this data comes from
Every observed number and regulatory record on this site traces back to one of these public sources. Nothing is scraped from unofficial mirrors or reconstructed from secondary reporting.
Groundwater levels and streamflow, from field measurements and daily-value stream gauges near each tracked facility.
Source page ↗
Daily precipitation from GHCND weather stations near each tracked facility.
Source page ↗- CT DEEP
Water diversion permits and registrations: the maximum volume a site is legally authorized to withdraw, statewide in Connecticut.
Source page ↗ - MassDEP
Water Management Act withdrawal permits issued since 2015, statewide in Massachusetts.
Source page ↗ 
Facility-level compliance records under the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and RCRA hazardous-waste rules.
Source page ↗
See it on the map
Every tracked facility, its nearby wells, and the modeled drawdown surface between them, plotted over real New England topography.
Facilities tracked
16 facilities across Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, spanning the full lifecycle, from land acquisition to decades of operation.
Jay, ME
Androscoggin Mill Data Center
Status uncertain · Capacity not published
No local pathway
Trumbull, CT
Aphorio Carter – Trumbull
Operating · 15 MW
Insufficient data
Bloomfield, CT
Atlas Capital Group – Bloomfield
Proposed · Capacity not published
Not yet operating
Wallingford, CT
Charter Development – Wallingford
Proposed · Capacity not published
Not yet operating
Norwalk, CT
CyrusOne – Norwalk
Operating · 16 MW
Insufficient data
Billerica, MA
Equinix BO2 – Billerica
Operating · 16.8 MW
Insufficient controls
Bristol, CT
Gray Wolf Data Centers – Bristol
Permitting · 3 MW
Not yet operating
Lowell, MA
Markley Group – Lowell
Operating · Capacity not published
No local pathway
Boston, MA
Markley Group – One Summer Street
Operating · 30 MW
Insufficient data
Killingly, CT
NE Edge – Killingly
Proposed · Capacity not published
Not yet operating
Waterford, CT
NE Edge – Waterford (Millstone)
Status uncertain · 300 MW
Not yet operating
Beacon Falls, CT
O&G Industries – Beacon Falls
Under construction · 32 MW
No local pathway
Sanford, ME
Sanford Woods Industrial and Technical Campus
Status uncertain · Capacity not published
No local pathway
Smithfield, RI
Smithfield Data Center
Status uncertain · Capacity not published
Not yet operating
Waterbury, CT
TierPoint – Waterbury
Operating · 1 MW
Insufficient data
Westfield, MA
Westfield Data Center Campus
Status uncertain · 274 MW
Not yet operating
About this project
The evidence about how data centers interact with New England's water is public — stream gauges, permit lists, compliance records — but scattered across agencies that never designed it to be read together. Drawdown does one job: it lines that data up.
Observed means observedObserved
Every observed number traces to a public primary source and links to it.
Estimates say soEstimate
Derived numbers are always labeled, shown with their formula and inputs; when an input is missing, nothing is shown.
Timing, not causation
Milestones plotted against readings align timelines; they are not causal claims.
Attribution requires confirmation
Permits and compliance records attach to a facility only when holder name and town both match.
Drawdown is an independent project by Jon Vale — no funding, no affiliation, and no position on whether any facility should be built. Next.js and Supabase, monthly USGS/NOAA refreshes, kriging implemented from scratch; the full source is public at jon-vale/data-center-drawdown ↗, and corrections are welcome via GitHub issues ↗.