Blanket moratoriums and federal mandates aren't the answer to growing concerns about the impact of data center proliferation on local water supplies, according to a report released Monday by a science and technology policy think tank.
"Technology exists, and policy instruments are available, to develop a new, state-led model of water governance for data centers and other large industrial users," noted the report by Robin Gaster, research director of the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation's Center for Clean Energy Innovation.
"What's missing is institutional coordination, regulatory specificity, and a set of standardized mechanisms and metrics," he added.
"You can't fix what you don't measure, and right now nobody measures water consumption the same way on a state or federal level," explained Stuart Lacey, founder and CEO of Labrynth, a global platform for streamlining regulatory, permitting, licensing, and compliance processes for heavily regulated industries.
"State officials, regulators, and communities are all left guessing about storage and consumption," he told TechNewsWorld.
