In his July 26, 2026, New York Times guest essay, “The Environmental Case Against Data Centers Is Misguided,” Adam Mastroianni argues that opposition to data centers is driven by contempt for tech billionaires cloaked in environmental concerns—a diagnosis I find persuasive.
But he undercuts his case with broad statistical comparisons. Among them, he cites an estimate of approximately 100 billion gallons per year for data centers and argues that, even if their water use increases substantially, it will remain minuscule beside the several trillion gallons Americans use each year to keep grass green.
Comparing data centers with every lawn in the United States does not answer the environmental question confronting a community: How much water demand will be concentrated at this site, and can the surrounding aquifer, watershed, and municipal water system sustain it?
Intensity is the relevant metric
Water-Use Intensity (WUI)—the gallons of water used per square foot per year—is the more useful metric for guiding development decisions. WUI measures the density of water use: the concentration of demand at a particular place.
Residential landscapes have a rough national WUI of approximately 2 gallons per square foot per year. A data center has a WUI of approximately 87 gallons per square foot per year—more than 40 times as concentrated as residential landscape irrigation.
Concentration changes the local equation
That concentration matters because local water systems—well fields, reservoirs, and treatment plants—have finite capacity. One large new draw at a single site can strain that ceiling in a way that dispersed residential use across a region does not.
Imagine a bird’s-eye map of the United States in which every parcel is shaded according to its WUI. Residential lawns would appear as broad regions of low demand density. Data centers would appear as scattered spikes: a landscape of low average demand interrupted by intense, geographically concentrated industrial loads.
National totals can hide local constraints
Lawns collectively use more water because they cover tens of millions of acres. Data centers occupy a minuscule fraction of that area. Saying that lawns use more water does not resolve the environmental question; it shifts attention away from the location and concentration of the new demand.
Make WUI a standard disclosure
WUI should become a standard disclosure in zoning applications, development agreements, water-service requests, and environmental reviews.
Development approval should hinge on a direct local question: Can the watershed, aquifer, and municipal system surrounding this high-intensity site sustain the demand concentrated there?