Where Infrastructure Readiness's numbers come from, and where the public record stops

How Infrastructure Readiness is organized

Infrastructure Readiness is built in tiers. This page describes what each one does today; anything not yet built is marked so.

Facility list

Infrastructure Readiness shows only verified records: a public-records set of 1,437 real U.S. data centers in 49 states and DC, from hyperscale campuses to colocation buildings, enterprise, government and university data centers, and crypto mines: hyperscalers (Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Apple, Oracle), AI builders (the Stargate sites, xAI, CoreWeave and others) and colocation operators (QTS, Aligned, Vantage, EdgeCore, CyrusOne, Digital Realty, Switch and others). The bar at the bottom of the dashboard reads VERIFIED PUBLIC RECORDS — … FACILITIES · CHECKED …. Infrastructure Readiness's database and REST API hold the same verified list and nothing else; earlier unverified entries were removed on October 6, 2026.

• Each facility in the public-records set names the report, filing or company page it came from, linked in its map popup.
• Coordinates come from the operator's published address or a named map feature for the campus. Where only the town could be confirmed, the pin marks the town and the popup says so.
• Status is what the source states: 147 operating, 82 under construction, 97 planned; the rest are not stated. For campuses not yet operating, the popup gives the evidence and its date (for example a rezoning vote, permit or groundbreaking). Planned capacity and projected water are labelled as such.
• Crypto sites are flagged, not hidden. A violet tag and marker outline marks 3 active cryptocurrency mining sites (dashed outline), 3 former mines converted to AI/HPC, and 6 AI/HPC sites run by companies that also mine cryptocurrency.
• Source tier says who published the record: government record (34), operator page or release (141), news report (137) or industry directory (29). Directory listings are used only for operating sites whose operator pages could not be reached.
• Many colocation operators say their cooling uses little or no water ("closed-loop", "near-zero WUE"). Infrastructure Readiness quotes the claim in the note and still shows no number unless one is published.
• Some entries cover more than one building: Google's Council Bluffs figure covers both of its Council Bluffs facilities, and Microsoft's West Des Moines figure covers five campuses.

Water figures

Companies report water in different ways, so every figure carries a label saying what it measures and for which year.

Figures are shown in millions of gallons per day (MGD): the annual total divided by 365. The popup also gives the original annual number.

Who publishes what

• Google publishes water consumed and withdrawn for each data center in its annual Environmental Report.
• Meta publishes water withdrawn for each data center in its Environmental Data Index. Its one-page site fact sheets leave water out. Sites still under construction (Richland Parish, LA) have no figure yet.
• Apple publishes electricity per data center, but water only for its operations as a whole. Its 2025 report describes water savings at individual sites (for example, about 7 million gallons a year expected from a cooling-controls project at Maiden, NC) without giving any site's total use.
• Microsoft does not publish per-site water; the figures shown come from city records and reporting on them.
• Colocation operators (QTS, Switch, Digital Realty, CyrusOne) generally publish no per-site water. Some say their cooling uses little or no water; Infrastructure Readiness quotes that claim and still shows no number.

Blanks and labels

• Water use is blank where the operator reports only company totals or nothing at all.
• Capacity (MW) is blank unless a source states the site's power capacity. Where operators' own figures conflict (Switch Citadel), none is shown.

Risk scores and drought level

A facility shows Not scored until you select it. Selecting it calculates the risk score from public inputs, with every factor shown; nothing is scored from guesses.

Public water systems

Selecting a facility lists the public water systems whose service areas fall within the chosen distance (5, 10, 25 or 50 miles), from EPA's national Public Water System Service Areas dataset.

• The dataset covers roughly 44,000 community water systems serving about 99% of people on community systems. A little over half of the boundaries come from states or utilities; EPA modeled the rest. A modeled boundary is an approximation.
• "Covers this site" means the facility's pin falls inside that system's service area. It suggests the likely supplier but does not prove a supply contract; a campus can also have its own wells or a private supply.
• "Within 10 miles" means the service area reaches inside that circle, not that the system's intake or treatment plant is that close.
• Population served and connection counts are what each system reports to its state and EPA.

Waterways and flow seasons

The blue dots are active USGS stream gauges that record daily river flow (discharge), within the chosen distance.

• For each gauge, Infrastructure Readiness averages USGS's monthly mean flow over the most recent 30 years of record, so a river reshaped by dams or diversions is described as it runs now.
• High-flow season is the run of months around the highest month that sit in the top quarter of that gauge's own range. Low-flow season is the same around the lowest month, in the bottom quarter. Each river is measured against itself, not against a national threshold.
• On regulated rivers (the Columbia, for example), dam operations shape the seasons as much as weather does.
• Some gauges have gaps or short records; if USGS has no complete monthly record, the panel says so instead of guessing.

Drought seasons

Drought seasons come from the U.S. Drought Monitor, a weekly map published since 2000 by the National Drought Mitigation Center, USDA and NOAA.

• Categories: D0 abnormally dry, D1 moderate, D2 severe, D3 extreme, D4 exceptional drought.
• The bars show, for each calendar month, the average share of the county in drought (D1 or worse) across every weekly map since 2000.
• Driest stretch uses the same top-quarter rule as flow seasons, applied to that county's own history.
• Now is the worst category present anywhere in the county on the latest weekly map, with that map's date.

Facility data coverage

Power plants

• Every operable U.S. power plant — about 13,400 — from the U.S. Energy Information Administration's Energy Atlas (Form EIA-860): name, operator, state, main fuel, technology and capacity (MW). Updated annually by EIA.
• Thermoelectric cooling for the 759 plants that report cooling-water data to EIA (steam plants of 100 MW and up), from EIA's 2024 cooling water data (Forms EIA-860 and EIA-923): cooling type (once-through, recirculating with towers, cooling pond, air-cooled), water withdrawn and consumed (million gallons), cooling water intensity in gallons per MWh generated, and the named water source and type (fresh, saline, reclaimed).
• Plants below EIA's cooling-reporting threshold show "cooling type not reported to EIA"; solar, wind and battery plants use no cooling water.

Data centers

• 1,437 real U.S. data centers from public records, 61 with a published or projected water figure, each with its source. 1,303 are placed at their exact street address or at coordinates stated in an official record (addresses placed with the U.S. Census geocoder, OpenStreetMap when the address is newer than Census address ranges, or coordinates EPA's Facility Registry fixed for that facility by GPS or from imagery); the rest are marked approximate and outline their town or county. Data captured: location (latitude/longitude), water use where disclosed (converted to million gallons per day, with whether it is consumed, withdrawn or projected), capacity where published. Cooling infrastructure type and renewable-energy share are not published per site by these operators, so they are not shown.

Water and wastewater infrastructure

• Wastewater treatment plants: about 16,400 publicly owned treatment works with active, continued, pending or expired permits, from EPA ECHO: design capacity, average flow where reported, permit status and receiving water.
• Public water systems: about 44,000 community water systems' service areas from EPA, shown around any selected facility with population served.
• Hydroelectric dams are in the power-plant layer (fuel: hydroelectric).

USGS stream gauges

• Active USGS stream gauges near a selected facility, with readings every 15 minutes (provisional).
• Data provided: current streamflow (cubic feet per second); percentage of normal — today's flow against the gauge's average for this calendar date over its whole period of record (often longer than 30 years; the record length is shown); flow percentiles for the date (10th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th where USGS publishes them); and a 24-hour trend (rising, falling or stable: the median of the latest four hours against the same four hours a day earlier, ±5%).
• Critical for facilities that rely on river or stream cooling, especially once-through plants.

Power and wastewater layers load for the area in view once the map is zoomed to about state level, largest first, at most 2,000 of each at a time.

Risk scoring methodology

Risk Score (0–100) = 0.40 × Drought factor + 0.30 × Streamflow factor + 0.20 × Cooling type factor + 0.10 × Capacity factor. Calculated for the selected facility from current public data.

Component 1: Drought factor (40%)

U.S. Drought Monitor category at the facility's own location on the latest weekly map: none = 0, D0 = 5, D1 = 25, D2 = 50, D3 = 75, D4 = 100 points.

Component 2: Streamflow factor (30%)

The nearest USGS gauge within 25 miles that has history for today's date. Today's flow against that date's percentiles: above the 90th = 5 points (abundant water); 75th–90th = 15; 50th–75th = 35; 25th–50th = 65; below the 25th = 100 (severely low flow). Where USGS publishes no 90th percentile for the date, flow above the 75th scores 15.

Component 3: Cooling type factor (20%)

EIA cooling system type: once-through (open river loop) = 90 points; recirculating with towers = 50; evaporative cooling ponds = 50; air-cooled = 5 (no water risk). A plant with more than one system is scored by its highest-risk type. Solar, wind and battery plants score 5 (no cooling water).

Component 4: Capacity factor (10%)

EIA cooling water withdrawal intensity: high demand (10,000+ gallons per MWh) = 100 points; medium (5,000–10,000) = 50; low (under 5,000) = 10. Solar, wind and battery plants score 10.

When a factor does not apply

Cooling type and gallons per MWh exist only for thermoelectric plants that report them to EIA. For hydroelectric plants, data centers and treatment plants, and when no gauge is close enough, that factor is left out and the remaining weights are rescaled to 100%. The score always says how many of the four factors it used and why any are missing. Nothing is estimated to fill a gap.

Risk levels

Dashboard and reporting

• Interactive Leaflet map: Dark, Light, Standard, Satellite and Terrain basemaps (no API key needed); layers for data centers, power plants (coloured by fuel) and wastewater plants.
• Map icons: every kind of point has its own symbol: data centers, crypto sites, each power-plant fuel, wastewater plants, stream gauges and discharge permits (key under "Map icons" in the legend). Hovering any point enlarges it and shows a short summary; hovering a data center also highlights its row in the list, and hovering a row highlights its point on the map.
• Panels follow the map: the list and the numbers across the top cover only what is inside the map view, and update as you pan or zoom. With the power or wastewater layer on, the list gains tabs for the plants in view. Untick "Only what's on the map" to list everything.
• Filterable facility list: search by name, city or state; filter by risk level and region. A data center's card shows its score and a "water below normal nearby" tag once selected.
• Water panel for any selected facility: risk score and factors, NOAA forecast, nearby water systems, stream gauges, discharge permits and downstream paths.
• PDF report: "Download PDF report" in the water panel builds a printable report — facility details, score and every factor with its basis, NOAA forecast, stream gauges (flow, % of normal, percentile band, trend), water systems and discharge permits, with sources and dates — and a compliance & disclosure worksheet (below) — and opens the print dialog, where "Save as PDF" creates the file.

Compliance & reporting worksheet

Each facility's PDF report ends with a worksheet that lines up public data with the disclosure fields of the main water-reporting frameworks. A field is pre-filled only when a public source gives the value; every other field reads "To be provided by the operator".

Siting context

The Siting context panel (under the water panel) describes the area around the selected facility, within 1, 3, 5 or 10 miles. It loads when opened.

Regulatory tracking

The Regulatory Tracking page has two parts:

• Tracked laws and rules: AI regulation, data center legislation, and water and energy requirements at the U.S. federal, state and local level and abroad. Each record links to the official text (statute, bill page, official journal or agency record) and gives the status as that source stated it on the date checked. The jurisdiction count on the page is computed from the records themselves.
• Live feed: new federal rules, proposed rules and notices from the Federal Register, matched by keyword and refreshed every 6 hours. Bills in Congress (Congress.gov) and in all 50 state legislatures (LegiScan) appear once their free API keys are added to the server's private configuration; until then the page says they are not connected.

Forecast

The forecast shown with each score is NOAA's, not Infrastructure Readiness's: the Climate Prediction Center's monthly drought outlook (through the end of the coming month) and seasonal drought outlook (about three months) at the facility's location, with the date NOAA issued them. NOAA updates the monthly outlook on the last day of each month and the seasonal one in the middle of the month. Infrastructure Readiness does not make its own 60-day prediction.

"Lower than expected" right now

When you select a data center, the water panel opens with a summary of whether water nearby is lower than expected for the date.

• Waterways: each gauge's latest reading (USGS, provisional, no older than two days) is compared with that same gauge's history for today's calendar date. Below the 25th percentile is Below normal; below the 10th is Much below normal; the 25th–75th percentile is Normal for today; above the 75th and 90th are Above and Much above normal. This is the method USGS uses for its own streamflow maps. A gauge with fewer than 10 years of history for the date shows "No comparison available".
• Water systems: utilities publish no live supply levels, so a system is marked County drier than usual when its county's share in drought (D1 or worse) on the latest Drought Monitor map is at least 10 points above that county's average for this month, or above average with severe drought (D2+) present. The ten largest systems and the one covering the site are checked.
• The site's own county gets the same comparison, shown in the summary.
• The data center's card in the list is tagged "Water below normal nearby" when any of these is lower than expected.

Peak demand

Discharge pathways

The Discharge pathways group shows where water leaves the area and where it goes next.

Discharge permits

• Listed from EPA's ECHO database: every individual Clean Water Act (NPDES) discharge permit within the chosen distance. General permits, such as construction stormwater coverage, are left out because they are not fixed discharge points.
• Treatment plant marks municipal wastewater plants (POTWs). Discharges to is the receiving water named in the permit record. Design capacity is the plant's permitted size, not its current flow.
• Operator's permit is flagged when a permit's name contains the facility operator's name. Permits held under a subsidiary or a different company name are not flagged.

Downstream paths

• Opening a permit traces the stream network downstream from its location using USGS's Network-Linked Data Index, built on the NHDPlus national stream map. The path is drawn in orange.
• Downstream from this site traces the same way from the facility's own pin: the path rain and surface water take off its land. It is a drainage path, not a permit record.
• Traces stop after about 62 miles (100 km); the water keeps going. The monitoring points listed along the path include USGS gauges and water-sampling sites.

Map tiles

Standard, Dark and Light basemaps are OpenStreetMap tiles; Dark and Light are the same tiles recoloured in the browser, which needs no API key. Satellite imagery is from Esri; Terrain from OpenTopoMap.

Freshness and caching

• The public-records facility set was checked on October 6, 2026. Company reports are annual, so figures lag by up to a year.
• Water systems, gauges, permits and downstream paths are looked up live from EPA and USGS each time you select a facility, and kept for the rest of your visit.
• Drought history goes through a small relay on this site (the Drought Monitor's service cannot be called from a browser directly). The relay keeps each county's history for 7 days, matching the Drought Monitor's weekly schedule, and each point's county for 90 days.

All sources