Data Center Expert: Never Sign NDAs With Developers, Demand Water Details Up Front

Elected officials considering data center proposals should refuse to sign non-disclosure agreements with developers and extract detailed water-use commitments before approving anything, according to an expert from the county with the world’s highest concentration of data centers.

Mike Turner, a Loudoun County, Virginia supervisor, laid out specific questions for governing bodies during an Aug. 27 webinar hosted by Agri-Pulse. Loudoun County operates about 253 AI data centers.

“I think that the public and your communities are demanding transparency,” Turner said, warning that signing NDAs with developers will cost elected leaders their residents’ trust.

Advertisement

Turner said officials should require developers to specify annual water use, identify what type of cooling system they’ll use, and state whether they’re drawing potable or recycled water.

In Loudoun County, data centers consume 10% of the county’s drinkable water. Most use closed-loop systems that circulate water continuously rather than drawing fresh supply constantly.

“They’ll use a lot of water to charge initially, but then they don’t use anymore for years. And I would not allow a data center in this modern environment into my community that was not on a closed-loop water system,” Turner said.

The webinar comes as two edge node data center proposals for fairgrounds in Tulare and Kings counties have drawn resident opposition at board and city council meetings in recent months.

The developer, Global Stack USA, says those edge node centers — the size of shipping containers — use closed-loop cooling and wouldn’t connect to municipal or community water supply. The fairground boards haven’t formally considered the proposals and won’t revisit them for several months.

The Breakdown

• AI data centers require substantially more energy and water than traditional data centers, depending on cooling method
• Turner recommends three requirements: annual water-use figure, cooling-system type identified, and water source (potable vs. recycled) stated
• Closed-loop systems circulate water continuously
• Edge node data centers are shipping-container-sized units using closed-loop cooling

What This Means for You

Turner’s recommendations give elected officials a template for what to demand before approving a project — and what never to agree to, like an NDA that blocks residents from seeing the terms.

What to Watch

The developer says the edge node centers wouldn’t tap municipal water, but Turner’s advice raises the question: what’s committed to and is it enforceable?

The webinar panel didn’t distinguish between traditional and AI data centers when discussing impacts, even though AI centers require “much greater amounts of energy and water.” If the Tulare and Kings County proposals are AI-specific edge nodes, the difference matters — a reader can’t know from this material whether the cooling and water claims apply equally to both types.

Loudoun County’s experience also surfaces a question for rural California: if data centers use 10% of Loudoun County’s potable water, what does that percentage look like elsewhere? A closed-loop system that “doesn’t use anymore for years” still used a lot to start — in a county with surplus water, that might be fine. In other places, the initial draw is a real question.