OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Janesville City Council Special Session on Data Center Water Usage - March 23, 2026

Meeting Portal — Monday, March 23, 2026
BodyJanesville, Wisconsin
SessionMeeting Portal
DateMonday, March 23, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 36:38

Transcript — Verbatim
2:38

All right, we're gonna call the um order the city council special session meeting for Monday, March twenty third, twenty twenty-six.

2:48

Roll call, please.

2:49

President Burdick?

2:50

Here.

2:50

Vice President Squire.

2:52

Here.

2:52

Council Member Cass.

2:53

Here Councilmember Earthman.

2:56

Council Member Miller.

2:58

Here.

2:59

Council Member Nino?

3:00

Here.

3:01

Council Member Williams.

3:03

Here.

3:03

I think I got them all.

3:04

There's one absent, we do have a quorum.

3:07

All right, thank you.

3:09

Okay, this uh uh presentation will be for thirty minutes and then we'll have uh fifteen minutes for questions.

3:17

And uh here we have for uh presentation on um data center water usage and it's David Botts, the utility director for the city of Jamesville.

3:28

Thank you, Council President, Council members.

3:30

I'm Dave Boss, utilities director for the city.

3:33

I'm responsible for the both sewer and water utilities that uh we have here in the community.

3:37

So what we're gonna do tonight is uh kind of give you some background information on our utilities we have here in town.

3:56

The north pressure zone is the one in yellow, and the south pressure zone is the one in pink.

4:02

And basically what divides them up is elevation.

4:04

The higher elevation is the north pressure zone and the lower elevation is the uh the pink pressure zone.

4:23

That's what we can produce.

4:24

What they refer to as reliable is when one pump station is down, that's how much water we can provide.

4:30

So they always want to make sure that we have a backup in our in our numbers so we don't, you know, overuse what water we have available to us, so we call it reliable flow is two point one million gallons a day.

4:43

Yes.

5:00

Yeah, they're they don't cross over each other unless we want to move water from one pressure zone to the other.

5:06

And the south one can get 11.4 million gallons a day.

5:09

So we have a combined total of reliable of 22.6 million gallons a day.

5:16

In the north zone, during 2025, we averaged 5.7 million gallons a day for our water usage.

5:24

So we're only using less than 45% of our our water we can produce.

5:30

The South Zone, we got 5.82 million gallons per day.

5:35

So, you know, going back to it, you know, we only use about 10.89 million gallons a day of our reliable resources for water in 25.

5:48

In our system, we have 68 industrial customers who totally their total number is about two more 2.0 million gallons per day is what our industrial customers use.

5:59

And then our commercial customers, we got over 1600 of those.

6:04

And you know, their total volume is like 1.8 million gallons a day.

6:09

The remainder of the 10 gallon 10 million gallons we use per day is uh commercial is for uh residential customers as well as public authority, which would be government buildings, schools, and other that types of buildings.

6:25

So they make up the majority of the water usage for the community.

6:29

And as you can see, as our four top industrial customers, the highest one is only 0.6 million gallons a day, is what their water usage is.

6:37

This is on average for the year.

6:40

Obviously, you know, they go up and down, depends on the time of season and everything, but so you know, even our top four customers don't use a lot of water that we can provide, and then our top four commercial customers, as you can see, the the fourth highest one is a car wash that uses that much water just per car wash on average per the year.

7:06

So around the the GM site portion of it on the the north end, we have a lot of utility structures uh along Delvin Drive.

7:15

We have a 16-inch water main, we have a 54-inch sanitary sewer main, and then on Jackson Street, we have 24 inch and 21-inch sanitary sewer lines, we have eight-inch water mains that go up and down there.

7:30

So there's a lot of water availability for that south side, water and sewer capacity for the south side, or for the north side there.

7:39

Then for the datco site, we have there's a 15-inch water or sewer line that crosses the property on the very south end.

7:51

Then we have you know, mains out in Kellogg as well as Jackson that can provide you know the water and sewer resources for that portion of the development.

8:04

Right now, our treatment plant is rated for 19.6 million gallons a day.

8:10

So our but in our average flow at 25 was 10.1 million gallons a day.

8:16

So we have a lot of capacity left in our treatment plant.

8:19

One interesting fact, what they reminded me of in uh 08 when we had the floods, they processed 30 million gallons a day through that plant.

8:28

They had no overflows and it met all the permit requirements.

8:32

So the plant has a lot of capacity and it functions really well.

8:35

We've got a really nice plant out there, and uh the staff do a real nice job of operating it.

8:41

And then the sanitary lines around you know the GM Jaco site, you know, we got a lot of capacity knows the 54 inches right now, it's only flowing about a third full, and then the 21, 24, and 15s are all about a quarter full right now.

8:56

So there's there's capacity there for sanitary sewer capacity flow.

9:03

So one thing I wanted to do to try to help myself understand more what these data center would uh bring to the community as far as utility usage.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Technology and Innovation█████████████████████████████████████████████49%
Water And Wastewater Management█████████████████████23%
Economic Development█████████████████19%
Procedural█████5%
Environmental Protection████4%
Summary of Proceedings

Janesville City Council Special Session on Data Center Water Usage - March 23, 2026

The Janesville City Council held a special session on March 23, 2026, at 5:15 PM to receive a presentation on data center water usage and utility capacity. The presentation was delivered by David Botts, Utilities Director, and Dale Lewis, Director of Data Center Development for Bolt Company, followed by a council Q&A session.

Discussion Items

  • David Botts presented on Janesville's water utility infrastructure, including the north and south pressure zones. He reported that the city has a combined reliable water capacity of 22.6 million gallons per day (MGD), with average daily usage in 2025 of 10.89 MGD, indicating significant excess capacity.
  • Botts discussed the top industrial and commercial water users, noting that the largest industrial customer uses 0.6 MGD on average. He also outlined utility infrastructure at the GM site and Datco site, emphasizing ample water and sewer capacity in those areas.
  • Botts shared that he contacted Pleasant Prairie and Racine about Microsoft's data center in Mount Pleasant. He learned that wastewater permits are not yet finalized, and that the industry is transitioning to closed-loop cooling systems. He stated that the city would require any data center to obtain a permit for wastewater discharge and would monitor flows.
  • Dale Lewis explained the closed-loop cooling system technology, comparing it to a car radiator. He stated that these systems use minimal water after an initial fill, and that water is treated on-site by companies like NALCO or Ecolab. He noted that the initial fill for a large AI campus could be 4-5 million gallons, but ongoing water usage is very low, primarily for landscaping irrigation.
  • Lewis emphasized the economic benefits of AI data centers, stating that for every megawatt deployed, 1.7 full-time jobs are created, with six-figure salaries. He mentioned that over $30 billion in data center investment is planned in Wisconsin, and that the industry is driving innovation and job growth.
  • Lewis addressed water scrutiny, stating that closed-loop systems do not discharge process water to the municipality; any waste is trucked off-site for treatment. He noted that the industry is becoming more transparent and responsible in community engagement.

Key Outcomes

  • The council received the presentation and participated in a Q&A session. No formal votes were taken.
  • The meeting adjourned at approximately 5:59 PM on a motion by Council Member Cass, seconded by Council Member Williams, passed unanimously.

Meeting Transcript

All right, we're gonna call the um order the city council special session meeting for Monday, March twenty third, twenty twenty-six. Roll call, please. President Burdick? Here. Vice President Squire. Here. Council Member Cass. Here Councilmember Earthman. Council Member Miller. Here. Council Member Nino? Here. Council Member Williams. Here. I think I got them all. There's one absent, we do have a quorum. All right, thank you. Okay, this uh uh presentation will be for thirty minutes and then we'll have uh fifteen minutes for questions. And uh here we have for uh presentation on um data center water usage and it's David Botts, the utility director for the city of Jamesville. Thank you, Council President, Council members. I'm Dave Boss, utilities director for the city. I'm responsible for the both sewer and water utilities that uh we have here in the community. So what we're gonna do tonight is uh kind of give you some background information on our utilities we have here in town. The north pressure zone is the one in yellow, and the south pressure zone is the one in pink. And basically what divides them up is elevation. The higher elevation is the north pressure zone and the lower elevation is the uh the pink pressure zone. That's what we can produce. What they refer to as reliable is when one pump station is down, that's how much water we can provide. So they always want to make sure that we have a backup in our in our numbers so we don't, you know, overuse what water we have available to us, so we call it reliable flow is two point one million gallons a day. Yes. Yeah, they're they don't cross over each other unless we want to move water from one pressure zone to the other. And the south one can get 11.4 million gallons a day. So we have a combined total of reliable of 22.6 million gallons a day. In the north zone, during 2025, we averaged 5.7 million gallons a day for our water usage. So we're only using less than 45% of our our water we can produce. The South Zone, we got 5.82 million gallons per day. So, you know, going back to it, you know, we only use about 10.89 million gallons a day of our reliable resources for water in 25. In our system, we have 68 industrial customers who totally their total number is about two more 2.0 million gallons per day is what our industrial customers use. And then our commercial customers, we got over 1600 of those. And you know, their total volume is like 1.8 million gallons a day. The remainder of the 10 gallon 10 million gallons we use per day is uh commercial is for uh residential customers as well as public authority, which would be government buildings, schools, and other that types of buildings. So they make up the majority of the water usage for the community. And as you can see, as our four top industrial customers, the highest one is only 0.6 million gallons a day, is what their water usage is. This is on average for the year. Obviously, you know, they go up and down, depends on the time of season and everything, but so you know, even our top four customers don't use a lot of water that we can provide, and then our top four commercial customers, as you can see, the the fourth highest one is a car wash that uses that much water just per car wash on average per the year. So around the the GM site portion of it on the the north end, we have a lot of utility structures uh along Delvin Drive. We have a 16-inch water main, we have a 54-inch sanitary sewer main, and then on Jackson Street, we have 24 inch and 21-inch sanitary sewer lines, we have eight-inch water mains that go up and down there. So there's a lot of water availability for that south side, water and sewer capacity for the south side, or for the north side there. Then for the datco site, we have there's a 15-inch water or sewer line that crosses the property on the very south end. Then we have you know, mains out in Kellogg as well as Jackson that can provide you know the water and sewer resources for that portion of the development.

SUMMARIZED BY OPENPUBLICA AI
TRANSCRIPT VIA PUBLIC VIDEO
openpublica.com