CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS) — West Virginia has seen multiple data centers popping up following the passage of House Bill 2014 which was signed into law in April.

It encourages these centers to come to the state by allowing them to create power using microgrids. This is all being done to promote economic growth and create more jobs.

With the multiple announcements of data centers coming to different communities, people have spoken out over the past few months sharing their concerns of the negative environmental impacts that may come with them.

In August, people shared concerns regarding the proposal of two off-grid power plants being built to supply electricity to data centers in a rural area in Mingo County.

Now, some lawmakers are looking at different bills to put stricter regulations on data centers. One of those would require disclosure of where the water these centers use comes from and where it’s going.

“Unfortunately there’s too many communities across the state that don’t have access to clean drinking water,” Delegate Evan Hansen said. “We need to be really protective of that resource.”

Data centers use water to cool the heat that is generated, but how much water is actually used?

According to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, larger data centers can use up to 5 million gallons of water per day, which is equivalent to what a town of 10,000 to 50,000 people would use.

“Data centers use a lot of water and there are concerns about where that water is gonna come from, especially if it’s gonna be pumped out of groundwater or pumped out of small creeks,” Hansen said.

Data centers rank in the top 10 of water consuming industrial or commercial industries in the United States, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.

“There’s also concerns about where the water is gonna go back and particularly if it gets warmed up by the data center and goes back into trout streams, if it’s gonna impact trout waters which are precious resources in West Virginia,” Hansen said.