How much water did a data center in Georgia consume without paying?

A massive data center spent months guzzling millions of gallons of water from Fayette County, Ga., before anyone noticed. Residents had begun complaining of unusually low water pressure and an investigation led the local utility provider to Project Excalibur, a Quality Technology Services (QTS) data center campus.

The utility discovered two industrial-scale water hookups connecting its infrastructure to QTS’ campus. One was not connected to QTS’ account and the other had reportedly been installed without the utility’s knowledge. In a May 15 letter to QTS, county officials retroactively charged the company $150,000 for the roughly 30 million gallons of water it had consumed unnoticed.

It is unclear exactly how long QTS was getting the free water. A QTS statement to Politico put the timeframe at 9 to 15 months, but Fayette County Water System Director Vanessa Tigert told the publication it was likely around four months. A spokesperson for QTS told Gizmodo that it was the result of a billing issue due to improperly linked water meters and that the problem had been fixed and all charges paid.