Dr. Chris Manganiello, water policy director for Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, told the subcommittee the Chattahoochee River serves roughly 5 million people and that Georgia has an obligation to manage that water “responsibly and fairly,” pointing to recent Supreme Court rulings on interstate water disputes.
Manganiello summarized publicly reported water estimates for large proposed projects and for operating facilities. He said the Douglas County Google site uses about 1.2 million gallons per day of potable input and reported consumptive (nonreturned) use around 965,000 gallons per day. Reviewing dozens of proposed projects, he told the committee that if about two dozen large proposals materialize, they would require roughly 31,000,000 gallons per day of withdrawals and would return about 11,500,000 gallons per day as treated wastewater, leaving around 19,000,000 gallons per day in consumptive use — roughly 7 billion gallons per year.
Manganiello said the available data are uneven because many proposals submit basic water figures through the Department of Community Affairs’ Development of Regional Impact (DRI) process, and he raised concern that DCA had paused requiring some projects to file DRIs. “It is concerning that there is … concern now that the DRI process is not requiring data centers to go through that application process right now,” he said.
He recommended a mix of actions including: keeping data centers in the DRI process so planners can evaluate water and other infrastructure needs; empowering regional councils with funding to act on plan recommendations; revising drought rules to consider the needs of critical facilities; and adopting statewide plumbing and stewardship updates and a self‑sustaining water infrastructure fund.
Why it matters: Manganiello framed data centers as a sector that can be highly consumptive depending on cooling choices. He urged policymakers to require disclosure of water use at the proposal stage so local planners and the public can assess risks to supplies and downstream users.