Data centers use water, sometimes in large amounts, to cool their servers. He said the water crunch is happening at the same time as many new data centers are coming online across his district. Data Centers Would Struggle to Get a Groundwater Permit, Study FindsThe report said most existing and planned data center capacity is located in public water supply service areas that mostly draw from surface water. While it’s also not clear exactly how many data centers are under development in the state’s eastern region, 371 are in operation across the state and another 438 are planned, according to Cleanview, a company that tracks data centers and other power infrastructure development. Groundwater management and quality as more data centers come online has also been a concern in states including Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Georgia and South Carolina.