Senate committee approves data-center water-transparency reporting for large facilities

The Senate Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Committee on a unanimous voice vote advanced House Bill 76 (third substitute), a transparency measure that requires large new data centers to notify the state water engineer before construction and to submit annual post-construction water-use reports to the Division of Water Rights.

Representative Cofer, the sponsor, said HB 76 is a reporting and public-disclosure mechanism, not a ban or cap on water use. The third substitute applies to data centers larger than 10,000 square feet that use more than 75 acre-feet of water per year; it also establishes a July 1, 2026 threshold for public disclosure of water withdrawals from new facilities. "It's really about communication and information for our state water engineer, so we know how our water is being used," the sponsor said, adding the industry has been moving away from water-cooled designs.

Theresa Wilhelmsen, State Engineer and Director of the Division of Water Rights, told the committee the division already operates an industrial water-use reporting program that covers roughly 1,700 entities, and that adding data centers would be similar to existing reporting duties.

Public commenters who supported transparency included Leslie Zabriskie of Mormon Women for Ethical Government, Chris Shepherd (private citizen), Scott Paxman (a water conservancy district general manager), Amy Wicks of the Utah Rivers Council, and Michael Larson of the Utah Association of Conservation Districts. Amy Wicks urged a lower reporting threshold than 75 acre-feet, saying that level is high enough to miss some facilities that could still stress local watersheds. The sponsor said the 75 acre-feet threshold was a suggestion from a large industry water user and was intended to capture the largest consumers while protecting proprietary details.

Committee members asked whether the bill makes site-level data public. The sponsor said reports submitted to the division would provide the state and local water providers necessary information while the publicly available output would be aggregated to avoid disclosing confidential business details.

Senator Stratton moved a favorable recommendation. The chair called a voice vote; the committee reported unanimous approval and forwarded the bill to the full Senate.