Evaporative towers; groundwater plus surface water
Basis
Fitted to a published figure of 540 million gallons a year
Air — what the stacks emit
Nitrogen oxides221t/yr
Sulphur dioxide374t/yr
Fine particulates35.7t PM2.5
Health damages$37.0M/yr
Where it burns
Southern Co. — Georgia / Alabama
Generation mix
Gas 48 · Nuclear 28 · Coal 15
CO₂e
562 kt/yr — climate, not air quality
Who wanted it
Who asked for it
Google — self-build
Who approved it
Berkeley County agreements; SC Department of Environmental Services groundwater withdrawal permits — a request to draw up to 1.5 million gallons a day from the Middendorf aquifer drew formal state objections
What it serves
Google Cloud us-east1 and Search infrastructure
IT capacity
250 MW running of 400 MW announced
South Carolina's own Department of Natural Resources filed against Google's aquifer permit, arguing the Middendorf is already over-drafted. The case is one of the few where a state agency opposed another arm of state government over a data center.
Water and air figures are modelled from disclosed capacity, not measured — site-level
error is roughly ±40%. Diesel backup generators are not counted, so on-site figures are floors.
Full method.