Tell Ohio EPA: No general wastewater permits for Ohio data centers

Last week we learned that the Ohio EPA is taking comments on a Draft Wastewater General Permit for Data Centers.

In plain language, they are considering a general wastewater permit that would cover any Ohio data center. This would fast-track wastewater permits for data centers without reviews needed to ensure public health and safety.

There are currently 217 data centers in Ohio, with more being built every day. Under a general permit, the Ohio EPA would not have to consider the wide variety of sizes, designs, and operations of these data centers — nor would it have to consider the variety of waterways where data center wastewater is discharged.

Tell the Ohio EPA: No general wastewater permits for data centers

There are numerous issues with Ohio EPA’s Draft Wastewater General Permit for Data Centers:

• There’s no mention or regulation of PFAS “forever chemicals,” which data centers often use in their cooling systems.
• There’s no requirement for baseline measurements of water quality in areas where data center wastewater will be taken and discharged.
• It does not include concentration limits on numerous additives and impurities in data center wastewater.
• It excludes consideration of social and economic issues, and does not require any analysis of alternatives.

Most concerning is this statement: “It has been determined that a lowering of water quality of various waters of the state associated with granting coverage under this permit is necessary to accommodate important social and economic development.”

General permits are intended for situations of minimal environmental impact. Yet this general permit says up front that it will result in lower water quality. That’s not acceptable!

Tell the Ohio EPA: No general wastewater permits for data centers

Finally, please ask the Ohio EPA to extend the commenting period on the draft general permit by 90 days. We only found out about this a few days ago, and the deadline is December 17. No environmental groups we know of were informed.

Ohio EPA needs to ensure the public has adequate time to find out about and comment on such a critical matter as general wastewater permits for Ohio data centers. The deadline for filing a comment has been extended to January 16, 2026, at 5 p.m.

A sample comment is below, but for the greatest impact, please personalize it to explain why clean water is important to you.

Here is our sample comment.  

• Please copy and paste this into the Ohio EPA public comment form.
• If you see a list of forms, select “Draft Wastewater General Permit for Data Centers.”
• For the greatest impact, please add a few sentences explaining why clean water is important to you.

Ohio EPA,

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the draft National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) General Permit Authorization for Discharges from Data Centers (OHD000001).

Stringent NPDES permits are essential to protecting public drinking water by limiting discharges of harmful pollutants into our waterways.

A general NPDES permit is not appropriate for all 217 (and increasing) data centers in Ohio. These data centers vary wildly in size, design, operations, and pollutants discharged. The areas where they extract and discharge wastewater also vary greatly. One general permit cannot cover every circumstance, meaning harmful pollutants could be concentrated and discharged into our water.

Among important areas of concern in the general discharge permit draft are:

• There is no mention of persistent and carcinogenic PFAS / PFOA chemicals (also called “forever chemicals”), often used as an additive in data center cooling systems.
• There is no requirement for baseline measurements of water quality where data center wastewater will be discharged, so no way to determine whether data center discharges are degrading water quality.
• It does not include concentration limits on numerous additives and impurities. This is especially important for data centers, which evaporate 80% of the water used, heavily concentrating pollutants in the 20% of water discharged as waste.
• It excludes consideration of social and economic issues around data center water sourcing or contaminants in water discharges, and does not require any analysis of alternatives.

Most concerning is this statement: “It has been determined that a lowering of water quality of various waters of the state associated with granting coverage under this permit is necessary to accommodate important social and economic development in the state of Ohio.” There is no explanation of how and why this determination was made.

According to Ohio EPA’s guidelines, a general water permit is intended to cover discharges that have a minimal effect on the environment. Yet this draft general permit openly states that data center wastewater discharges will result in lowering water quality. That is not acceptable.

Data centers are already using as much as 5 million gallons of water per day — as much as an entire city. Their water permits need to be evaluated individually — and the health and safety of Ohioans, not more profits for the billionaires who own them, should be Ohio EPA’s primary consideration.

Thank you for your consideration of my comments.

If you have any questions about how to submit a comment on the draft general wastewater permit for data centers, please contact mary.mccarron@epa.ohio.gov or 614.644.2160.

Thank you for your advocacy for our finite water resources. We do not want the rush to build out big tech data centers to destroy our precious drinking water.

Photo: Water tower and lagoons at Amazon data center in New Albany, Ohio, by Co-Star.