In Aurora, data center proposals run through a simple filter. City officials compare total water use against how much of that water won’t come back—lost to evaporation. If either number gets too high, the project doesn’t move forward. When a developer wants to build in Denver, there is no matrix. That gap—two cities, two standards, nothing statewide connecting them—is the center of a question Colorado has avoided answering: who is responsible for knowing how much water AI data centers use, and when does that become too much? The question got harder to ignore this spring. On March 16, Governor Jared Polis activated Phase 2 of the state’s Drought Response Plan—the first activation in nearly six years—after federal water managers ranked this year’s snowpack 45th out of 46 years on record. 

Other data center water use news:

• Mother Jones: In Indian Country, data centers come with a familiar threat of colonialism. These organizers are fighting back.
• The Business Journals: Americans were already fighting over water. Then came the data centers.
• Outside magazine: Opinion: AI is not draining the Colorado River. I measured it.