Lake Erie Watchdog Group Urges Governments to Regulate How Data Centers Dispose of Water

When John Lipaj toured NEO-01, a newly-built hyperscale data center a bit outside of Sandusky, in September, he came prepared with a list of questions for the facility’s owner, Aligned.

The data center watchdog at the Lake Erie Foundation, Lipaj tailored his inquiries to Aligned’s staff under one specific umbrella: whether NEO-01’s operations, there at the edge of Perkins Township, would tamper with Lake Erie’s water quality.

“We were actually kind of surprised,” Lipaj, a financial planner by day, told Scene, “at how much thought and planning had gone into reducing not only wastewater, but the stormwater, as well.”

Besides the stormwater, which only flows to Lake Erie after careful weighing by Erie County, all the heat NEO-01 circulates, Lipaj found, dissipates into the air around the building. All of the remaining cooled water is recirculated.

“All because of their closed-loop cooling system,” he said.

This week, Lipaj and his team at the Lake Erie Foundation released a list of public policy proposals for local and state government committees to consider as more hyperscale centers are proposed around Ohio.

That includes forcing data center companies to disclose every inch of water usage, how exactly water is used to cool down servers, how it’s disposed of, and what chemicals could one day end up in Lake Erie.

“LEF believes that the time to establish clear water-protection standards is before projects are built,” a policy guide released on Tuesday read, “not after environmental problems occur.” 

Columbus is currently the home of the most hyperscale data centers in the state. The kind that, due to size alone, require complex cooling processes to ensure that servers don’t fail. Three other centers are being planned for Sandusky, one in Monroeville, and one in Bowling Green.

It’s unclear to what extent these centers will rely on water from Lake Erie, which already is imperiled algae blooms, microplastic pollutions and invasive species. What Lipaj and LEF want to ensure is that local governments, like Cleveland City Council, are acting quickly so data center companies aren’t tip-toeing around any legal loopholes when it comes to disposing of contaminated water.

Ward 13 Councilman Brian Kazy, who has led City Council’s data center discussions, told Scene that he’s seen LEF’s list of policy recommendations and said that how centers cool their servers will be addressed in upcoming legislation. The city’s current moratorium on new centers expires in late January 2027.

“We all want good oversight over the water supply,” Kazy said in a phone call, adding that as far as Lake Erie’s health goes, “everybody’s essentially saying the same thing but with different words.”

Lipaj said he wants legislation to this effect so that private companies can’t skirt around loopholes that, for example, allow PFAs to enter Northeast Ohio’s sewer system. The Northeast Ohio Sewer District would be the controlling body there, but making oversight clear in new city law would help to further weed out pollution of any kind, he said.

A spokesperson for Aligned did not respond to a list of questions pertaining to its stormwater or wastewater disposal practices.

But Lipaj is hopeful, especially as he continues to keep an eye on new facilities being built.

“I think at the end of the day, what it comes down to is overly simplistic,” he said. “There are bad data centers and there are good data centers.” 

“I mean, they’ve been around for 50 years. People don’t realize that,” he added. “And so whether we like them or not, they’re not really going away. So, let’s make sure we put everything in place so they do as little harm as possible.”