CHICAGO -- How are data centers impacting our local water supply, and how can the community prevent further strain on this precious resource?

The Alliance for the Great Lakes (AGL) published what they call the "Data Center Playbook," a free online tool to provide clear and accessible information about the growth of data centers and their impact.

The playbook is a follow-up to an August AGL report that sounded alarm bells, which warns that the Great Lakes region is not ready for the water demands of today and into the future. The buildout of data centers, largely to power artificial intelligence, could lead to water shortages, groundwater conflicts, and aquifer contamination, it warns.

Now, the playbook offers tools like community checklists for evaluating data center impacts and a list of questions to ask at public meetings.

"There's a real effort by the data centers themselves to move really, really fast," said Andrea Densham, director of regional government affairs for AGL. "That puts municipalities, which are often smaller governmental entities, in a position to deal with really large, sometimes multinational corporations."

In a free webinar hosted by AGL on Tuesday, panelists discussed the information gaps when it comes to data center projects.

For example, it is hard to know the full water footprint of a project, especially if developers are not mandated to measure and report their impact.

Also, local officials are often required to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) during the planning phase for such projects, keeping key project information from the public. Panelists offered advocacy strategies and ways to engage in local decision-making.

The full playbook can be found here.