PORT WASHINGTON, Wis. — Construction will begin next month on new water and sewer lines to support an $8 billion data center campus in Port Washington, marking the next phase of a project that has drawn months of concerns from residents.
At its meeting Tuesday evening, the Port Washington Common Council awarded an estimated $6 million contract to extend water mains and sewer lines about a mile to the campus site. The project will be funded through the tax-increment financing district created as part of the data center campus construction.
The infrastructure work comes less than two months after the council approved the massive data center project that will fill nearly 2,000 acres north of the city's downtown.
According to Mayor Ted Neitzke IV, the data center will use the equivalent of 65 houses' worth of water for basic operations like sinks and toilets — up to 10,000 gallons per day.
However, the cooling system for the servers operates on a closed loop system, meaning it won't need refreshing of roughly 1.2 million gallons from the city's municipal supply unless there's an emergency.
The city's water utility began pumping water from Lake Michigan in 1901, according to the city's 2024 annual report. The treatment plant is located next to Lake Michigan and is currently undergoing improvements.
Watch: Neighbors concerned with water consumption as Port Washington data center construction to start next month
A spokesperson for Vantage Data Centers, the Denver-based company building the campus, says there are only three instances where a refreshing of the system would need to take place: if the system broke down, in the event of a fire or if the fire suppression system needed to be refilled.
For months, residents in the area have been voicing their concerns to TMJ4, including at both of our Let's Talk listening sessions in Ozaukee County.
Resident Kris Ekman still worries about the project's environmental impact, particularly regarding water usage.
"Fresh water is one of the rarest resources on this planet. It makes up 3% of all water, and the Great Lakes are a huge part of that," Ekman said. "We need better transparency and more concrete numbers."
The concerns have been a recurring theme at community meetings over the past eight months. TMJ4 has spoken to several neighbors with similar opinions, and dozens more have expressed environmental worries directly to the Common Council.
The project has generated similar concerns in other parts of Wisconsin. Microsoft recently announced it is planning to build a second data center in Racine County, alongside its existing campus.
"We've had so many other 'Port' stories happening in other parts of the state as well. It feels like all of this is happening at an alarming rate, and it's like what do we do to press (the) brakes?" Ekman said.
The campus will leverage a closed-loop cooling system that uses minimal water. The peak daily water use will be less than 22,000 gallons, equivalent to approximately 65 residential homes. Vantage will not withdraw water directly from Lake Michigan but will instead utilize the existing city water supply.
In the normal course of operations, no additional water should be required unless there was a breakdown in the system. Another example where additional water might be needed is in the case of a fire, and we would need to refill our fire suppression system.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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