Water levels across the Great Lakes are falling – just as US data centers move in

Tue 16 Dec 2025 08.00 ESTLast modified on Tue 16 Dec 2025 08.02 EST The sign outside Tom Hermes's farmyard in Perkins Township in Ohio, a short drive south of the shores of Lake Erie, proudly claims that his family have farmed the land here since 1900. Today, he raises 130 head of cattle and grows corn, wheat, grass and soybeans on 1,200 acres of land. For his family, his animals and wider business, water is life. So when, in May 2024, the Texas-based Aligned Data Centers broke ground on its NEO-01, four-building, 200,000 sq ft data center on a brownfield site that abuts farmland that Hermes rents, he was concerned. "We have city water here. That's going to reduce the pressure if they are sucking all the water," he says of the data center.