The one thing to know
Data centers rank 37 of 45 industries for water use in the entire Susquehanna basin.
The single SRBC-permitted data center in the whole basin — Amazon Data Services in Salem Township — draws 129,000 gallons per day. That is less than a third of one Olympic swimming pool. Bottled water plants, ice cream factories, and dog food manufacturers rank higher than data centers on this ledger.
That is Amazon’s entire daily draw — the only SRBC-permitted data center in the whole basin. 19.5% of one Olympic swimming pool. Not per year. Not per week. Per day.
The yardsticks
Five reference points
Millions of gallons per day is not an intuitive unit. Everything on this page is expressed in the five anchors below. They are all sourced.
One Olympic pool of water flows past Williamsport every 7.8 seconds at the West Branch’s long-term mean discharge (11,374 cfs, SRBC). The river carries orders of magnitude more water than any user on it.
Three ways a data center can be cooled
Cooling design decides the water bill
“Data center water use” is a design choice, not a fact of nature. The Lycoming ordinance requires closed-loop. Here is what that actually means.
- Water evaporates from cooling towers
- Consumption is high; some heat rejected to air, most to water
- Prohibited under the proposed Lycoming ordinance
- Coolant recirculates in a sealed loop; water only tops up losses
- Sits at or near the Amazon Salem Twp draw of 129,000 gal / day (~0.20 pools/day)
- Required design under the Lycoming ordinance
- Heat rejected entirely to air via dry coolers
- ~10% more electricity to move that heat
- Allowed and encouraged under the ordinance
The proposed Lycoming ordinance requires closed-loop or air-cooled designs. Open evaporative is not permitted. Every reference on this page is to the middle column’s water profile.
By industry · the full ranking
Data centers rank 37 out of 45 industries in the basin.
All 45 industries with active SRBC consumptive-use permits in the Susquehanna basin, ranked from largest to smallest total water use. Data centers sit near the bottom — below dog food manufacturing, textile mills, and pharmaceutical plants. Every row comes from the same live permit ledger.
| Rank | Industry (NAICS) | Active permits | Total water use | Average per permit | Largest single permit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Crude Petroleum & Natural Gas Extraction | 1869 | 10,348.67mgd | 5.54mgd | 10.00mgd |
| 2 | Electric Power Generation | 12 | 91.08mgd | 7.59mgd | 53.00mgd |
| 3 | Nuclear Electric Power Generation | 1 | 21.00mgd | 21.00mgd | 21.00mgd |
| 4 | Golf Courses & Country Clubs | 41 | 11.76mgd | 287kgd | 1.62mgd |
| 5 | Fossil Fuel Electric Power Generation | 2 | 10.70mgd | 5.35mgd | 5.80mgd |
| 6 | Water Supply & Irrigation Systems | 7 | 8.11mgd | 1.16mgd | 3.00mgd |
| 7 | Bottled Water Manufacturing | 14 | 5.03mgd | 359kgd | 1.40mgd |
| 8 | Food Manufacturing | 6 | 3.67mgd | 612kgd | 1.30mgd |
| 9 | Pulp, Paper & Paperboard Mills | 1 | 3.65mgd | 3.65mgd | 3.65mgd |
| 10 | Paper (except Newsprint) Mills | 1 | 2.75mgd | 2.75mgd | 2.75mgd |
| 11 | Sanitary Paper Product Manufacturing | 1 | 2.50mgd | 2.50mgd | 2.50mgd |
| 12 | Ethyl Alcohol Manufacturing | 1 | 2.00mgd | 2.00mgd | 2.00mgd |
| 13 | Specialty Canning | 1 | 1.13mgd | 1.13mgd | 1.13mgd |
| 14 | Mining | 3 | 1.09mgd | 363kgd | 720kgd |
| 15 | Soap & Other Detergent Manufacturing | 1 | 999kgd | 999kgd | 999kgd |
| 16 | General Medical & Surgical Hospitals | 4 | 963kgd | 241kgd | 499kgd |
| 17 | Construction Sand & Gravel Mining | 2 | 922kgd | 461kgd | 823kgd |
| 18 | Stone Mining & Quarrying | 3 | 860kgd | 287kgd | 532kgd |
| 19 | Solid Waste Landfill | 5 | 703kgd | 141kgd | 360kgd |
| 20 | Crushed & Broken Limestone Mining | 3 | 620kgd | 207kgd | 380kgd |
| 21 | Dog & Cat Food Manufacturing | 2 | 480kgd | 240kgd | 400kgd |
| 22 | Soft Drink Manufacturing | 2 | 445kgd | 222kgd | 245kgd |
| 23 | Meat Processed from Carcasses | 1 | 380kgd | 380kgd | 380kgd |
| 24 | Pottery, Ceramics & Plumbing Fixture Mfg | 1 | 350kgd | 350kgd | 350kgd |
| 25 | Pharmaceutical Preparation Manufacturing | 1 | 350kgd | 350kgd | 350kgd |
| 26 | Dairy Product Manufacturing | 1 | 283kgd | 283kgd | 283kgd |
| 27 | Nonmetallic Mineral Mining & Quarrying | 1 | 280kgd | 280kgd | 280kgd |
| 28 | Textile Mills | 1 | 256kgd | 256kgd | 256kgd |
| 29 | Iron Foundries | 1 | 249kgd | 249kgd | 249kgd |
| 30 | Pharmaceutical & Medicine Manufacturing | 1 | 200kgd | 200kgd | 200kgd |
| 31 | Automobile Manufacturing | 1 | 200kgd | 200kgd | 200kgd |
| 32 | Colleges, Universities & Professional Schools | 2 | 195kgd | 98kgd | 132kgd |
| 33 | Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing | 1 | 177kgd | 177kgd | 177kgd |
| 34 | Secondary Smelting, Refining & Alloying | 1 | 170kgd | 170kgd | 170kgd |
| 35 | Paint & Coating Manufacturing | 1 | 160kgd | 160kgd | 160kgd |
| 36 | Dried & Dehydrated Food Manufacturing | 1 | 140kgd | 140kgd | 140kgd |
| 37 | Data Processing, Hosting & Related Services (Amazon Salem Twp) | 1 | 129kgd | 129kgd | 129kgd |
| 38 | Steam & Air-Conditioning Supply | 1 | 125kgd | 125kgd | 125kgd |
| 39 | Coal Mining | 1 | 99kgd | 99kgd | 99kgd |
| 40 | Cellulosic Organic Fiber Manufacturing | 1 | 99kgd | 99kgd | 99kgd |
| 41 | All Other Miscellaneous Food Manufacturing | 1 | 99kgd | 99kgd | 99kgd |
| 42 | Electrical Equipment Manufacturing | 1 | 80kgd | 80kgd | 80kgd |
| 43 | Chocolate & Confectionery Manufacturing | 1 | 50kgd | 50kgd | 50kgd |
| 44 | Ice Cream & Frozen Dessert Manufacturing | 1 | 50kgd | 50kgd | 50kgd |
| 45 | Rail Transportation | 1 | 40kgd | 40kgd | 40kgd |
Source: SRBC Water Resource Portal (wrp_projects) · extracted 2026-07-28. Active permits only (2021–2026 approvals). Rank #1 combines 1,869 individual natural gas well-pad Approvals By Rule (~5–10 mgd per pad, mostly short-lived during drilling). Units: mgd = million gallons per day; kgd = thousand gallons per day, used for industries below 1 mgd to keep the numbers readable.
The entire “Data Processing, Hosting & Related Services” industry in the Susquehanna basin uses 129,000 gallons per day. That is one permit, one facility. Meanwhile a single golf course averages 287,000 gallons per day. A single dog food factory averages 400,000. A single ice cream plant uses 50,000. Every serious water-consuming industry in the basin is at least twice the size of data centers — and most are ten to a hundred times larger.
Translated
What these numbers actually look like
Every daily draw below, converted into Olympic pools, households, acre-feet, and West Branch flow. The 300 MW closed-loop data center under the proposed ordinance appears in the amber row.
| User | Water use / day | Olympic pools / day | Households equivalent | Acre-feet / day | % of West Branch mean flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Susquehanna Nuclear (peak day) | 53.00 mgd | 80.3 | 176,667 | 162.7 | 0.721% |
| Brunner Island coal & gas station | 23.10 mgd | 35.0 | 77,000 | 70.9 | 0.314% |
| Christopher M. Crane Clean Energy Center | 21.00 mgd | 31.8 | 70,000 | 64.4 | 0.286% |
| Hummel Station (gas) | 6.50 mgd | 9.8 | 21,667 | 19.9 | 0.088% |
| York Energy Center, Block 2 | 5.80 mgd | 8.8 | 19,333 | 17.8 | 0.079% |
| Pixelle Spring Grove paper mill | 3.65 mgd | 5.5 | 12,167 | 11.2 | 0.050% |
| Chester Water Authority (public system) | 3.00 mgd | 4.5 | 10,000 | 9.2 | 0.041% |
| 300 MW data center — fully evaporative (not permitted here) | 3.00 mgd | 4.5 | 10,000 | 9.2 | 0.041% |
| Procter & Gamble Mehoopany paper | 2.75 mgd | 4.2 | 9,167 | 8.4 | 0.037% |
| First Quality Tissue (Clinton County) | 2.50 mgd | 3.8 | 8,333 | 7.7 | 0.034% |
| Pennsylvania Grain Processing (ethanol) | 2.00 mgd | 3.0 | 6,667 | 6.1 | 0.027% |
| Penn State Blue & White Golf Courses | 1.62 mgd | 2.5 | 5,400 | 5.0 | 0.022% |
| Chef Boyardee cannery (Milton, PA) | 1.13 mgd | 1.7 | 3,767 | 3.5 | 0.015% |
| Veolia Bloomsburg water system | 1.00 mgd | 1.5 | 3,333 | 3.1 | 0.014% |
| General hospital (average, one docket) | 500,000 gal / day | 0.76 | 1,667 | 1.5 | 0.007% |
| Dog & cat food manufacturing (one docket) | 400,000 gal / day | 0.61 | 1,333 | 1.2 | 0.005% |
| Solid waste landfill (one docket) | 360,000 gal / day | 0.55 | 1,200 | 1.1 | 0.005% |
| Average golf course & country club | 300,000 gal / day | 0.46 | 1,013 | 0.93 | 0.004% |
| Average bottled-water plant | 250,000 gal / day | 0.37 | 820 | 0.75 | 0.003% |
| 300 MW data center — closed-loop (Lycoming ordinance) | 150,000–300,000 gal / day | 0.23–0.45 | 500–1,000 | 0.46–0.92 | 0.002–0.004% |
| Amazon Data Services (Salem Twp) — live SRBC docket | 129,000 gal / day | 0.20 | 430 | 0.40 | 0.00175% |
| Pennsylvania College of Technology | 130,000 gal / day | 0.20 | 440 | 0.41 | 0.002% |
Conversions: 1 mgd = 1.515 Olympic pools/day; 1 mgd = 3,333 households at EPA’s 300 gpd; 1 mgd = 3.069 acre-feet/day; West Branch mean flow = 7,349 mgd (SRBC Milton). Peak-Day figures where applicable; 30-Day-Average otherwise per SRBC methodology.
Annual, not daily
Picture the annual draw as a lake
Instead of daily flow, imagine the whole year’s consumption sitting in one shallow lake. This is how much water each user actually removes from the basin in twelve months.
Amazon draw times 365 = 47 M gal/yr = 144 acre-feet. On a 10-acre footprint, that fills a pond about 14 feet deep — roughly the depth of a residential trout pond in the region. A working paper mill’s annual draw would fill a 100-acre lake to 41 feet. The nuclear plant next door would fill it to 594 feet — taller than a 55-story building.
Against the river itself
The West Branch outpaces every user on it
A 300 MW closed-loop data center at 200,000 gal / day would take from the West Branch what the river replaces in 2.4 seconds of mean flow. Amazon’s Salem Twp facility at 129,000 gal / day takes what the river replaces in 1.5 seconds. Susquehanna Nuclear next door takes what the river replaces in about 10.4 minutes.
The full ledger
Top 100 active SRBC consumptive-use dockets, high to low
Every docket-tier permit approved 2021–2026 and currently active in the Susquehanna basin. Ranked by approved consumptive use (mgd). This is the raw ledger the industry rollup above is built from.
| # | mgd | Limit | Sponsor / Facility | County / Municipality | Industry |
|---|
Source: SRBC Water Resource Portal (wrp_projects layer) · extracted 2026-07-28. Peak-Day and 30-Day-Average limits are reported as approved. Approvals By Rule (natural-gas well-pad ABRs at 5–10 mgd each) sit at ranks 4–100 of the pooled top-100 and are covered separately in the spreadsheet.
What our ordinance actually requires
Design lock-in, not honor system
Closed-loop or air-cooled only
Open evaporative cooling is prohibited. The permit sits inside a Community Benefits Agreement, so the operator gives it up by walking away from the fees.
SRBC docket + Peak-Day cap
Any withdrawal above 100,000 gpd 30-day average or 20,000 gpd from groundwater already triggers an SRBC review. We require the docket and a peak-day cap in the local CBA.
Public metering & reporting
Monthly withdrawal data is filed with the township and posted on the county open-data portal. Not the operator’s word.
Consumptive-use compensation
The SRBC already requires low-flow release compensation for consumptive users through Cowanesque Reservoir when the Wilkes-Barre gauge falls below Q7-10. The data center is bound to that program by docket, not by promise.
One more piece of context
The neighbor next door
The largest water user in Salem Township is not the data center. It is the nuclear plant sharing a zip code with it. Both dockets are public.
The data center draws 0.24% of the nuclear plant’s peak. They share a zip code.
Sources
Every number on this page is auditable
-
SRBC Water Resource Portal,
wrp_projectsfeature service. Extracted 2026-07-28. gis.srbc.gov / wrp_staging / MapServer / 0 - SRBC Watershed Profile — West Branch Susquehanna at Milton, PA. Long-term average flow 11,374 cfs. srbc.gov continuous-instream-monitoring
- USGS · Statistics for USGS 01551500, WB Susquehanna River at Williamsport, PA. waterdata.usgs.gov / 01551500
- EPA WaterSense — average household 300 gpd; average American 82 gpd (USGS 2015). epa.gov / watersense
- Olympic pool volume — 2,500,000 L = 660,430 US gallons at World Aquatics 50 × 25 × 2 m standard. en.wikipedia.org / Olympic-size_swimming_pool
- Fairfax County Board of Supervisors — Data Center Water Use Study. Full evaporative 300 MW estimate ~3 mgd. fairfaxcounty.gov / dcwater-report.pdf
- Kovastack — Data Center Cooling Water Benchmarks. Evaporative 1.8 M gal / MW / yr; closed-loop 0.05–0.3 M gal / MW / yr. kovastack.ai
- Airsys North America — Data Center Cooling Technology Guide. airsysnorthamerica.com
- EESI — Data Centers and Water Consumption briefing. eesi.org
- NRC / SRBC — Consumptive Use Mitigation Plan and Q7-10 flow at Wilkes-Barre (814 cfs / 526 mgd). nrc.gov / ML100150524.pdf
Read the fiscal case, the ordinance, or the CBA.
The water story is one of three. The tax base story is on the landing page. The exact contract sits in the Community Benefits Agreement term sheet. The zoning & design lock-in sits in the model ordinance.