What AI Data Centers Could Mean for South Seattle Communities

"Overwhelm" is a word often associated with AI.

Power grids and water supplies are overwhelmed by the energy and water consumption of data centers, and communities near data centers are overwhelmed by the resulting pollution and carbon emissions.

Some legislators are overwhelmed by all the areas of life that AI touches that require regulation, such as guardrails to limit anxiety and depression among teens, eliminating disinformation campaigns, and protecting civil liberties against tech surveillance.

While some in the tech industry hype AI's "overwhelmingly positive" potential, many individuals are overwhelmed by the sudden appearance of AI agents in seemingly every app and pressure from employers to incorporate AI into their daily work, lest they become one of the many victims of recent layoffs across industries. Some are also overwhelmed by AI's impacts on art and culture and critical thinking. 

In her book Empire of AI, Karen Hao, an investigative journalist covering the effects of artificial intelligence on society, advocates for "broad-based education" on AI. She writes that "the antidote to the mysticism and mirage of AI hype is to teach people about how AI works, about its strengths and shortcomings, about the systems that shape its development."

So, in the spirit of education for the purpose of empowering the people, here are answers to some frequently asked questions about how AI is impacting South Seattle.

What are data centers, and why do they use so much energy?

A data center is effectively a giant warehouse full of computers called "servers." Every website you visit, every file you store "on the cloud," exists physically on a data center server. Data centers consume huge amounts of electricity to run the servers and fresh water to cool the servers and keep them from overheating.

The data center market has been growing quickly since the rise of the internet in the 1990s, but that growth has become exponentially greater due to the use of AI. Deloitte estimates that power demand from AI data centers could grow 30-fold by 2035 compared with 2024 numbers.

When a data center is built in a community, electricity prices often go up for its residents. KUOW reports that in March, "big technology companies scored a win ... as a sweeping bill to regulate data centers lapsed in the Washington state Legislature." The bill would have "required data centers to pay additional utility charges, comply with clean energy requirements, and shut off power at times of peak demand on the grid" with the intention to put "protections in place for other utility customers, the power grid and the environment."

What other impacts do data centers have?

You know how your laptop gets hot when you use it? Now imagine a giant warehouse, many football fields long, stacked full of equipment emitting that kind of heat.

A single large data center can consume as much fresh water as a small to medium-sized town to cool its servers. Fresh water must be used for the evaporative cooling technology in data centers because salt water, with its mineral content and corrosive nature, would damage the equipment.

Some are using water-recycling systems to reduce data center reliance on local water supplies. Microsoft partnered with the City of Quincy, Washington, to build a system to recirculate cooling water, but this is not a standard practice because of the high expense and complexity of these closed-loop systems. For example, Elon Musk promised to build a state-of-the-art water-recycling plant in Memphis for an estimated $200 million to reassure residents about xAI moving into town, but the facility has not yet materialized.

This kind of water use could prove to be especially problematic this coming summer, as the Washington State Department of Ecology has officially declared a statewide drought emergency declaration. Local skiers and snowboarders will be familiar with this, as this past winter season was abysmal for these beloved sports, with mountains that are brown instead of covered with snow. But beyond winter sport interruption, lack of snowpack means significantly less water that flows down from the mountains, resulting in higher wildfire risk, strains on agriculture and farmers, and reduced hydropower. 

While large data centers are not yet built in Seattle proper, there are many across the state of Washington, mostly in the Quincy and Wenatchee areas. There is also a large-load data center in Tukwila that is boasted to be “part of the largest internet campus in North America.” Seattleites likely will not have to curtail their water usage this summer, but data centers in the rest of Washington will continue using up a portion of that limited water to keep the servers cool at the expense of fishers, farmers, and communities outside of the city. Additionally, because 77% of the power Seattle City Light (SCL) delivers is hydroelectricity, Seattle ratepayers could expect to see higher electricity rates. Puget Sound Energy has already announced it is increasing electricity rates by nearly 30% over the next three years.

While much of the AI conversation is focused on data centers' water and energy use, another lesser-known environmental impact is enabled emissions.

"Enabled emissions" is a term coined by local activists and former Microsoft employees Holly and Will Alpine to describe emissions that result from AI-enabled fossil fuel production. For example, Wood Mackenzie reported in 2025 that it expects AI to cause oil and gas companies to produce an additional trillion barrels of oil. The Alpines founded the Enabled Emissions Campaign to shed light on this topic.

The South End experiences more pollution than more affluent areas of Seattle, which can be seen in the increased cases of childhood asthma. Cleaning the air in the community would require a reduction in fossil fuel usage, but enabled emissions would instead require the use of fossil fuels for many more decades to come.

What's the status of data centers in Seattle?

If data centers come to Seattle, they could be built in South Seattle, which is already disproportionately impacted by environmental injustice. According to The Seattle Times, these data centers would have "a combined maximum demand of 369 megawatts — roughly one-third of what the city uses on an average day."

The Emerald's Mike Davis spoke to Jenn Strang, media relations for Seattle City Light, to find out whether SCL would build data centers in the South End. Strang responded, "The decision [to build data centers in the south end] is actually made by the developers. They approached us and asked us to do a study about possibly locating data centers within our service area … [SCL] had no say in where." Strang names the developers as Prologis, Equinix, and Sabey. Amid opposition, Sabey has since withdrawn its request, according to The Seattle Times. 

Strang goes on to say, "this is all very much in the exploratory phase. … No service agreements have been filed, no applications, no permits. This is all in the conjecture stage."

Who makes the decisions about these data centers and AI?

City of Seattle: Thanks to significant community engagement, on April 30, Seattle Councilmembers Debora Juarez (D5), Eddie Lin (D2), and Joy Hollingsworth (D3) announced plans to introduce a yearlong emergency moratorium on new data centers and an additional resolution calling for impact studies of data centers on city infrastructure, water usage, utility rates, land use, jobs, and public health.

A final version of the draft resolution will be available for the public to review soon. Both the resolution and the draft moratorium legislation will be introduced by mid-May.

Additionally, the city will prioritize advocating for state legislation regulating the impacts of data centers in 2027 and will prepare a report analyzing the economic impacts of data centers.

Mayor Katie Wilson: The mayor released a statement that says, "I share community concerns about environmental justice, economic resilience, and impacts of increased costs for Seattle rate payers. That's why my team is working closely with Seattle City Light, City Council and stakeholders to identify a range of long-term policy approaches, including exploring a moratorium on siting new centers."

Wilson also announced that city employees will be permitted to use AI tools that are vetted, including Microsoft Copilot, and says that over the next few years, she will "add to our existing technology risk assessments by developing an AI framework auditing process modeled after work in the European Union, aimed at developing strong labor and other standards across pre-procurement, procurement, and usage of Generative AI products for City work."

Seattle City Light/Seattle Public Utilities: Mayor Katie Wilson has outlined steps being taken by SCL and SPU. SCL is developing a policy to ensure data center costs are not borne by Seattle residents and other residents in SCL service areas, and SCL and SPU are surveying national best practices and will propose rate structures to ensure residents and businesses will not pay increased utility costs because of data centers.

Gov. Bob Ferguson: While data centers and their impacts tend to take up a lot of space in the headlines, they're just one piece of the AI conversation. Axios reports that "Washington is policing artificial intelligence, with new laws signed by Gov. Bob Ferguson setting guardrails for companion chatbots and requiring disclosure when images are made or edited by AI."

How can people learn more or impact these decisions?

This past winter, the Seattle DSA, Troublemakers, and 350 Seattle hosted The People's Forum on AI to discuss resisting, regulating, and reimagining AI and data centers in Washington. You can watch recordings from these sessions online to get a primer on AI issues in Washington. (Disclaimer: The author of this piece holds a volunteer position as a member-at-large on the board of directors of 350 Seattle.)

Seattleites can also keep an eye on the City Council's committee meetings and agendas to make their voices heard on data centers. Both the Parks & City Light Committee and the Land Use & Sustainability Committee are meeting on May 20 and either could introduce the moratorium.

Audrey Wang Gosselin is an electrical engineer by training and a leader in the climate and sustainability space.