waterbycounty

Data centers and water

Data Center Water Use in Fulton County, GA

Fulton County, Georgia has 27 mapped data center facilities, including Google, Microsoft, carrying about 800 MW of estimated power load.

GoogleMicrosoft

Water pressure for new demandHow hard a large new water user, like a data center, would press on this county's water. It blends recent drinking-water compliance, drought, and existing industrial demand. Higher pressure means new demand competes harder with current uses. It is not a judgment about whether one should be built.

23/ 100

Low water pressure

Fulton County has no health violations in the last 5 years, severe drought, low existing industrial water demand.

Mapped facilities
27
EPA + OpenStreetMap layers
Estimated power load
800 MW
IM3 Atlas capacity estimate
Permitted discharge
8K gal/day
Clean Water Act permit fields
DCWSI national rank
#41
of 318 scored counties

The operators

How many data centers are in Fulton County?

27 facilities are mapped to Fulton County, Georgia across the EPA and OpenStreetMap layers, run by operators including Google, Microsoft. Counts reflect mapped footprint, not an operator's total fleet.

  • Ascent - Atlanta Data Center

    Ascent · 13

    OpenStreetMap
  • Atlanta ATL13

    Digital Realty · Atlanta, GA

    OpenStreetMap
  • CenturyLink

    13

    OpenStreetMap
  • CoreSite AT1

    CoreSite · Atlanta, GA

    OpenStreetMap
  • Cox Data Center

    13

    OpenStreetMap
  • DATA CENTER ATLANTA, LLC

    ATLANTA, GA

    EPA ECHO
  • DATA CENTER FULTON, LLC

    ATLANTA, GA

    EPA ECHO
  • Digital Realty Data Center

    Digital Realty · Atlanta, 13

    OpenStreetMap
  • EDGECONNEX ATL11, LLC

    EdgeConneX · ATLANTA, GA

    EPA ECHO
  • EDGED ENERGY ATLANTA DATA CENTER

    ATLANTA, GA

    EPA ECHO
  • ENTERPRISE SERVICES, LLC

    ALPHARETTA, GA

    EPA ECHO
  • Flexential Atlanta - Alpharetta Data Center

    Flexential · Alpharetta, GA

    OpenStreetMap
  • Google Fiber

    Google · 13

    OpenStreetMap
  • GOOGLE WAREHOUSE

    Google · FAIRBURN, GA

    EPA ECHO
  • Hewlett-Packard

    13

    OpenStreetMap
  • Mapletree Industrial

    Alpharetta, GA

    OpenStreetMap
  • MICROSOFT DATA CENTER (CCO06)

    Microsoft · PALMETTO, GA

    EPA ECHO
  • MICROSOFT DATA CENTER (CCO06)

    Microsoft · PALMETTO, GA

    EPA CWA

9 more mapped facilities counted in this county's score.

Supply versus demand

How much water do Fulton County data centers use?

Exact facility water draw is rarely public. As a screening proxy we compare the Clean Water Act permitted discharge mapped to these facilities against the county's entire industrial water baseline from the USGS 2020 series.

The Clean Water Act permitted discharge from mapped data centers in Fulton County equals about less than 1% of the county's reported industrial water baseline.

Facility discharge vs county industrial water<1%
Mapped facility discharge
0.01 Mgal/day
County industrial baseline
2.32 Mgal/day

Model a build

Can Fulton County support more data centers?

On the water-pressure scale, Fulton County sits at 23, below the national median, so new large-load demand has more slack here than in most counties. Size a hypothetical build to see the daily draw against the county industrial baseline.

Data Center Water Budget Calculator

Estimate daily water use for a hypothetical facility in Fulton County.

1 MW1,000 MW
40%100%
799K gallons/dayHigh Impact

Your facility would use 34.4% of this county's industrial water baseline. Verify water rights and long-term drought projections before committing.

34.4% of county industrial baseline1.52 Mgal/day remaining headroom

Based on USGS 2020 water-use data and EPA-standard cooling intensity constants. Not a substitute for site-specific water rights analysis.

In context

How does Fulton County compare nationally?

DCWSI build-out rank
#41
of 318 counties with a stress score
Water pressure vs median
+4
national median is 19 of 100
Share of mapped load
0.5%
of 166.02 GW mapped nationally

Fulton County is one of 330 US counties with mapped data centers. See the full ranking and the interactive map in the national atlas.

Facility data combines EPA ECHO, EPA Clean Water Act permits, OpenStreetMap, and the IM3 Open Source Data Center Atlas (DOE/PNNL), geocoded to county FIPS. Capacity and water baselines come from IM3 and USGS 2020 water-use data. These are county-level screening figures, not a facility-level water-use audit. Read the full methodology.

By Evan Brooks, Data EditorPublished Reviewed by Evan Brooks, Data Editor