The rapid growth of data centers is raising a new concern: Depletion of drinking water supplies across the Midwest.

Large data centers, many devoted to researching artificial intelligence, are expected to use more than 150 billion gallons of water across the U.S. over the next five years, according to the advocacy organization Alliance for the Great Lakes.

That’s enough water to supply 4.6 million homes.

The data centers, which also use large amounts of power , need water for cooling and because of the size of the large operations — sometimes more than 10,000 square feet — an enormous amount is needed for each site.

But in almost all instances, the amount of water that’s being withdrawn for a single data center development is unknown because secrecy agreements between government bodies

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