Protecting our Water - the DRBC

The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) represents residents of Pennsylvania, New

Jersey, New York, and Delaware. The DRBC was formed in response to major water resource challenges requiring regional solutions, and to this day is a successful model

for federal-state collaboration. DRBC programs focus on water quality protection; water supply allocation, water conservation initiatives, and watershed planning; regulatory review (permitting); flow and drought management; flood loss reduction; and recreation. The anticipated growth in data centers is of interest to the DRBC because water is essential to data center operation. Many data centers use water directly for cooling to prevent servers and other equipment from overheating, and most use it indirectly due to significant energy needs, where thermoelectric energy generation in turn requires water for cooling. When it comes to water withdrawals, the issues for DRBC intervention are how companies are bypassing the water withdrawal requirements in ways that the DRBC can do nothing about. For example, many data center companies use water either pulled from private wells on the property, for which they already have rights, or buy additional municipal water that has already been approved by the DRBC.

DRBC's approval of projects applies only to new or expanded withdrawal or water discharge requests. Because data center facilities use existing municipal sources, if that source doesn't need to apply for or obtain a new permit through the DRBC, there really isn't anything they can do.

To help the DRBC manage our water resources and ensure that we'll have enough drinking water today and in the future, we need to submit public comments and voice our concerns directly to DRBC. By notifying them about the data centers in our towns, we can alert the DRBC to new demands on the water supply and ask the DRBC to exert more control over these types of systems. Rather than continuing to peddle their message of monitoring, working with utility companies, and following new policies as they come out, we need to call on the DRBC's water management enforcement powers.