Today, 26 Seattle and Washington-based environmental, labor, and public health groups sent a letter to Seattle City Council calling on city leaders to quickly pass a moratorium on new data centers in the city. 

Signers of the letter include Got Green, Seattle Education Association, Unite Here Local 8, and local chapters of Indivisible, Third Act, and Working Families Party. The letter was organized by 350 Seattle, Food & Water Watch, People’s Tech Project, Troublemakers, and Seattle Democratic Socialists of America

The letter reads in part, “The rapid expansion of data centers across the United States, driven by the generative artificial intelligence (AI) boom, presents one of the biggest environmental and social threats of our generation. This expansion is wildly increasing demand for energy, driving fossil fuel pollution, straining water resources, and raising electricity prices across the country.”

Councilmembers Lin, Juarez, and Hollingsworth recently announced their intention to introduce legislation to enact a moratorium. Draft legislation was released this week.

Data centers require massive amounts of power and water. Just this month, the nation’s grid watchdog issued its highest-level alert regarding risks to the grid from data centers—and most of that power is fossil-fueled, increasing local pollution in vulnerable communities and causing major climate risks. 

Research from Food & Water Watch shows that U.S. data centers could use as many as 720 billion gallons of water each year just to cool AI servers—water that can’t be returned to watersheds due to the anti-fungals and anti-corrosives used to protect computer equipment. This is enough water to meet the indoor needs of 18.5 million American households – six times as many households as the state of Washington.