Committee adopts amendment and lays over bill tightening early review of large water uses including data centers

Co-chair Fisher, the bill's author, moved House File 3,007 as amended to be laid over for possible inclusion in a future bill; the committee adopted an A2 author's amendment before laying the bill over.

The measure would create a pre-application evaluation process for proposed large water users, encourage earlier coordination with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and add a statewide "Water Availability Atlas" intended to guide siting for large water users such as hyperscale data centers. Co-chair Fisher told the committee the bill is intended to provide definitions and clarity, to help craft permit conditions for large water users and to reduce cases where project proposers select sites and later find sufficient water is not available.

The bill drew public testimony from business groups, environmental advocates, local governments and the DNR. Sarah Meridian, government relations and policy director for CURE, testified that Minnesota is seeing "sudden and intense interest from companies seeking to build hyperscale data centers" and…