Fall 2026 Issue Focus on how to stop AI data centers in your community - a Food & Water Watch resource for you or anyone you know facing an unwanted proposal in your home town or state.
Thank You for Fighting for Safe Food, Clean Water, and a Livable Climate!
DANGEROUS AI DATA
CENTERS MUST BE STOPPED. HERE’S HOW.
FALL 2026 ISSUE How to Stop a Data Center Near You
Wastewater Recycling and “Closed-loop Cooling” Won’t Save Our Water
Jane Torrence Donates to Build Community Power
HOW TO STOP A DATA CENTER NEAR YOU Big Tech is targeting towns and cities across the country in its rush to build water-guzzling, energy-intensive, noise-polluting AI data centers. Here’s how you can protect your community.
A MESSAGE FOR YOU It’s been a busy and inspiring year at Food & Water Watch as we ramped up our campaign to stop new data centers. Data centers threaten our water, air, and climate, while emitting damag- ing noise pollution and increasing our utility bills, all to line the pockets of billionaires. As the first national organization to call for a moratorium on data centers, Food & Water Watch has become a trusted resource for people across the country fighting back against Big Tech — and winning! This issue of Livable Future NOW is about how to stop data centers. It’s a resource for you or anyone you know who is fighting data centers in their community. By working together, we’ve stopped over half a dozen data centers from Pennsylvania to Kansas to Cali- fornia. And we led the successful campaign in New York to pass a one-year moratorium bill on new data center construction! Governor Hochul has since signed an execu- tive order imposing a moratorium; however, we’re rallying public pressure to urge Hochul to sign the stronger, more protective bill. We can stop the AI data center building frenzy. But it will take all of us. Thank you for your commitment and generosity!
Oracle's Project Jupiter is a massive AI data center being built in Santa Teresa, New Mexico. This facility is huge — larger than New York City's Central Park — and a threat to air quality and water resources, which is especially outrageous in a drought-stricken region. Photo by Alexa Reynaud for © Food & Water Watch and Lighthawk.org
Emily Wurth Managing Director of Organizing
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Each community is unique, and each data center proposal has its own set of circumstances. This is a simplified list of tried-and-true tactics Food & Water Watch relies on to defeat data center projects.
Step 1: Learn how decisions are made in your community
person get to make their comment? etc.
to the project at your local government meeting. If possible, stay until the end of the meeting and try to speak with decision makers to gauge where they stand. f Reviewing minutes or record- ings of previous meetings to see what your local electeds said about the proposal. Once you learn which decision makers are on the fence, focus your time emailing and calling them — they’re the ones you can sway. Step 3: Recruit others in your community
It’s also helpful to see if data center projects have been approved or are further along in the approval process in neighboring communities. Their process could be similar to what yours will be like. The more information you have, the better prepared you’ll be in
voicing your opposition. Step 2: Identify your decision makers
To understand how your local government reviews and approves data centers, a good place to start is its website. f Many data centers move forward through zoning changes; see if the website mentions a zoning board or committee. If so, find out when and where they meet, and start attending those meetings regularly. f Find out when and where the next municipal or county government meeting will be, and start attending those, too. f To prepare for these meetings, get to know your community's rules for public participation. For instance, if a hearing on a zoning change is sched- uled, how much advance notice will the public get? Will there be an opportunity for public comment? How much time does each
Your decision makers are the local elected officials who can stop or approve a project. Figure out which of them support the project, which oppose, and if
To get elected officials to vote against the data center project, you have to demonstrate widespread opposition among their constituents.
any are on the fence. You can do this by: f Contacting your local electeds. Express your concerns, and ask if they’ll vote no. f Giving public comment in opposition
Stop Data Centers - continue on Page 3 >
On the cover (photo by Mark Dixon/Blue Lens): Pennsylvania Director Megan McDonough and her team are fighting for a data center moratorium in Pennsylvania. Earlier this year, she deliv- ered a powerful speech at the Statehouse in Harrisburg. Her words will fire you up! Watch a clip here: fwwat.ch/megan
FOOD & WATER WATCH / ACTION — LIVABLE FUTURE NOW | 2
Food & Water Watch is here for you
deliver them to your elected leaders in a public setting.
> Stop Data Centers - continued from Page 2
This requires getting lots of folks to speak out against the project. A great way to identify people opposed to the data center is to contact local groups and organizations and ask if you can speak about data centers at their next meeting. Another great way is to gather petition signatures at commu- nity events. Petitions help you accomplish two important tasks: 1) Get contact info so you can follow up: when folks sign the petition, get their email and phone number so you can ask them to take further action. 2) Demonstrate strong public opposition: once you get a large number of signatures,
Step 4: Show power in numbers to your decision makers
As you build opposition against the data center, make sure your elected officials see and hear the community pushback. You can do this by: f Delivering petition signatures to your decision makers in a public setting where reporters are present, such as government meetings. If reporters aren’t typically at these meetings, ask them to attend and write a story about the opposition. f Get lots of people to email and call their local electeds. f Use social media to show how large the opposition is growing by sharing photos, especially of large rallies against the data center. f Most importantly, get lots of people to show up at local government meetings to voice their opposition. When the data center is being discussed, record or live stream it on YouTube or Facebook.
Fighting data centers is no small feat. It can take time and will require you and your community to monitor the project’s progress, continue mobilizing people, and, impor- tantly, escalate pressure on your decision-makers. This introductory how-to is for you or anyone you know to get started in protect- ing your community from AI data centers. Pass it on and share!
To request Food & Water Watch’s full Stop Data Centers Now! toolkit, fill out this form. fwwat.ch/dc-form Reach Out!
All these actions will put pressure on your decision makers to vote no.
Livable Future LIVE! is for YOU UPCOMING EVENTS Our monthly virtual educational series features the latest environmental news and shares what you can do to protect our food, water, and climate — and it’s free to all Food & Water Watch members! See what’s coming up and save your seat!
The events are practical and fact- based with a human touch. You address "why should we care?" beautifully and present us with action items.
fwwat.ch/live
Comment from an attendee
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Because of you, Michelle Allen equips people across the country with the know- how they need to defeat data centers FROM THE FIELD
Michelle is Food & Water Watch’s Volunteer Network Director. She’s passionate about finding ways to give our volunteers the tools and skills they need to be effective in our campaigns. Her role in our work to stop data centers is invaluable. She created a toolkit, webinars, and trainings full of information that activists across the country
can use to guide their local data center fights.
If you’ve never engaged with local government before, it can be hard to start. We wanted to create resources that point people in the right directions.
Your donations power Michelle’s important work. Thank you!
Wastewater Recycling and “Closed- loop Cooling” Won’t Save Our Water Big Tech wants us to believe that AI data centers won’t strain would reduce water withdraw- als by only 9%.
a lot of energy. And electricity generation has a massive water footprint when fueled by fossil fuels. As the movement against AI data centers continues to grow, Big Tech will keep pushing new lies and greenwashing schemes. We can’t allow our leaders to fall for them. We don’t know if or how AI data centers can operate without harming people, society, or the environment. Until we have a regulatory framework that protects us, we must hit the brakes nationwide.
local water supplies if paired with wastewater recycling or “closed-loop cooling” systems. We’re not buying it. Wastewater recycling — a drop in the bucket Wastewater recycling sounds like a good idea, but it often only makes a small dent in data center water usage. For example, Elon Musk’s xAI Colossus in Memphis, Tennes- see, draws a whopping 30,000 gallons a day from the Memphis Sand Aquifer, an underground water source that is essentially non-renewable. To tamp down community concerns, Musk promised to build a water-recycling plant. However, if built, this plant
Closed-loop cooling is a marketing gimmick
Tech companies are claiming closed-loop cooling would allow data centers to “consume zero water.” In reality, these systems often lose 25% of their water volume per month, requiring them to draw clean water. Closed-loop cooling also adds a cocktail of dangerous chemicals into cooling water to prevent bacterial growth and corrosion, which will eventually be released when the system is flushed. We need to stop data centers An added flaw to wastewater recycling and closed-loop cooling is that they consume
Urge your Congress- person to support a national data center moratorium. fwwat.ch/stop-dcs Protect Our Water
FOOD & WATER WATCH / ACTION — LIVABLE FUTURE NOW | 4
YOUR FOOD & WATER WATCH AT WORK
ACTION SHOT!
In June, Food & Water Watch launched the Stop Data Centers Coalition. Working with allies, we brought together more than 500 organizations representing nearly every state to join our call for a nationwide halt to data center construction, including health, faith, environmental, labor, and community groups. The coalition will support data center fights across the country and advance federal protections to stop the AI data center frenzy. By coming together and building incredible people power, we're stopping these energy-hungry, water-guzzling data centers. With you, we can protect people and the environment!
Pennsylvania State Senator Katie Muth joined the coalition launch and talked about the bipartisan bill she introduced in her state to impose a three-year statewide moratorium on new data centers.
FEATURED VICTORY
You powered an incredible victory! New York became the first state in the country to enact a moratorium on new data centers. Thanks to serious grassroots pressure, New York Governor Hochul signed an executive order in July that will put the brakes on dozens of planned projects, taking effect immediately, protecting communities across the region. This is a huge first step! But we’re not stopping here. Although the executive order is a historic and positive step forward, the data center moratorium bill we successfully passed in the New York Legis- lature in June is more robust, requiring in-depth studies and public participation. Together, we’ll continue to urge Governor Hochul to take the next step by signing the stronger data center bill sitting on her desk and fully protect people and the planet from data centers. This accomplishment is because of everyone who has ever taken action, made a phone call, attend- ed an event, or made a donation. This victory wouldn’t have happened without you. Let’s finalize it.
Food & Water Watch New York State Director Laura Shindell (right), Volunteer Leader Ken Schles (2nd from right), and allies celebrate at the executive order signing event on July 14, 2026. This moratorium comes as the direct result of immense public pressure from people across the state demanding their elected leaders protect them from Big Tech’s assault, which threatens the state’s clean air and water, and New Yorkers’ financial security. — Laura Shindell
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DONOR SPOTLIIGHT Jane Torrence Donates to Build Community Power Please introduce yourself to our readers. My name is Jane Torrence, and I’m a
teacher who works with visually impaired or blind students. I live in the Hudson Valley of New York. When did you first become interested in environmen- tal issues? Growing up in Utah, I had endless opportuni- ties to be active and experience true wilderness. It’s terrible that places like that are becoming increasingly rare. When I was an assistant science teacher, one day I took my students outside after a rain. Water droplets were hanging all over every tree branch, each one containing a reflection of everything around it. My students marveled at the tiny universe inside each drop. That sums up how I think about the natural world — each tiny piece reflects the whole and is an essential part of our larger environment. It’s vital to protect as much as we can. How did you hear about Food & Water Watch, and what motivated you to make your first gift? I heard about Food & Water Watch from a door-to-door canvasser when my kids were little. Being new to New York at the time, I was so grateful to learn from them about the health and safety dangers of Indian Point, the nuclear power plant near where I live, and the history of GE’s PCB (polychlorinated biphenyls) contam- ination of the Hudson River, and they were informing the public about what we could do. With kids and a career, I had very little time to stay informed or go to meetings, but I knew I could help through my donations. And you also give to Food & Water Action. Why is this important to you? I always figured that a 501(c)(4) organization is less funded because donations aren’t tax-de-
I trust that Food & Water Watch is getting the facts, sharing what they know, and telling us where to show up and who to call.
ductible. I give to Food & Water Action because I want to help them build community power to take back control of local environments. My gift does that. What do you wish everyone knew about Food & Water Watch and Food & Water Action? I wish people knew how hard Food & Water Watch and Action are looking out for our quality of life. I recently heard that they keep themselves agile so they can respond to climate, food, and water issues across the country as they arise. For instance, they can organize quickly to stop AI data centers from being built. This is so important because a victory in one community can inform others dealing with similar issues. I trust that Food & Water Watch is getting the facts, sharing what they know, and telling us where to show up and who to call. What gives you hope? I’m hopeful when I see young people running for office. We desperately need new ways of thinking and problem-solving.
FOOD & WATER WATCH / ACTION — LIVABLE FUTURE NOW | 6
The AI data center frenzy is one of the greatest environmental and social challenges of our generation.
While AI and data centers are funneling unimaginable wealth to Big Tech billionaires, they’re shoving all the risks and damages onto us. Here are some of the worst ways data centers leech off our communities and the planet for Big Tech’s profit.
Enormous energy footprints: A single hyper- scale data center can consume as much energy as 2 million U.S. households. A lifeline for fossil fuels: The thirst for energy is being met by keeping old coal-fired power plants running and by building new natural gas ones. Skyrocketing electricity costs: Increased energy demand can raise residential rates, which soared 31% from 2020 to 2025. Strained water resources: By 2028, AI data centers could use as much as 720 billion gallons of water each year just to cool servers — enough water to meet the indoor needs of 18.5 million households. A litany of other harms: Such as massive amounts of electronic waste, noise pollution, loss of farmland, political instability from deepfake videos, and child endangerment from AI chatbots.
It’s time to stop the construction of all new data centers nationwide until we have a regulatory framework that protects our communities and our environment. Food & Water Watch volunteer Joanna Gallo tabled at the Hudson River Music Festival in New York to gather petition signatures for New York’s data center moratorium bill, which passed the New York State legislature in June.
YES! I want to stop data centers that abuse our drinking water, pollute our air, and spike our energy bills.
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