Gigawatt Ledger · one-page briefing
Campus profile Operating
Council Bluffs
Google · Council Bluffs, Iowa
The resource footprint
Modelled averageIn one day, this campus consumes about
9.1450-metre swimming pools
Filled with the volume of water consumed by the campus and its electricity supply.
The actual estimate6,038,605 US gallons consumed
Power-plant water may come from a different watershed. This is a volume comparison, not a claim that households lose this water.
At current operating capacity · Annual model spread evenly over time, not a live meter. Site estimates may differ by roughly ±40%.
Comparison sizes & sources
One pool = 50 × 25 × 2 metres = 2.5 million litres (about 660,430 US gallons). Pool depths vary; this is a defined comparison size.
One home-year = 10,791 kWh, the EIA’s 2022 average US residential electricity purchases. This excludes electricity generated at home and is a fixed US benchmark for all sites.
One car-year = 4.6 tonnes CO₂, the EPA’s typical passenger vehicle tailpipe estimate. The campus model is in CO₂e; the comparison expresses approximate climate scale, not equal mixtures of pollutants.
Monthly values are annual totals ÷ 12; daily values are annual totals ÷ 365. Actual demand varies. Comparisons cover the whole campus, including non-AI uses.
Water: see the numbers and sources
This is water used up, mainly through evaporation. Power-generation water may be used in a different watershed.
- Pressure on local water
- Low-Medium — a regional measure of demand compared with available water
- Where the water comes from
- Municipal potable supply
- Cooling
- Evaporative cooling towers on municipal and well water
- Basis
- Fitted to a published figure of 1,346 million gallons a year (2025)
- Operator table
- Withdrew 1,746 million gallons, discharged 400, consumed 1,346
- Claimed vs observed
- Google 2026 Environmental Report (FY2025): withdrew 1,746.4 million gallons, discharged 400.4, consumed 1,346.0 — the largest Google campus that year.
Air: see the numbers and sources
The totals include nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide and fine particles. They cover both this site and the power plants supplying it.
- Health range
- $46.1–131 million a year. Lower bound is EASIUR national mid-range; upper is EPA benefit-per-ton at a ~$12M VSL.
- Statistical deaths
- 11.0 a year at that VSL — a national-average conversion from tons, not a local concentration study.
- Equals
- 862,340 cars of NOx
- Where it burns
- MISO West — Iowa / Nebraska
- Generation mix
- Wind 52 · Coal 22 · Gas 14 · Nuclear 8
- Diesel backup
- No on-site prime generation reported. Generator permits were not retrieved.
- CO₂e
- 1,169 kt/yr — climate, not air quality
The project, approvals and community concerns
- Who asked for it
- Google — self-build, plus Google Cloud customers and Gemini training
- Who approved it
- Pottawattamie County + City of Council Bluffs abatements; MidAmerican Energy supply backed by its Iowa wind fleet
- What it serves
- Google Cloud us-central1, Search, YouTube, and TPU training pods
- IT capacity
- 500 MW current capacity / 700 MW full-build scenario
Google's thirstiest campus: 1.35 billion gallons consumed in 2025. It sits on a wind-heavy MidAmerican grid, so carbon per unit of compute is among the lowest in the US fleet. The tradeoff between water and carbon is unusually visible here.
Keep this guide handy
41.2216°, -95.8608°
Quote or share these estimates
Gigawatt Ledger (2026). Council Bluffs: water and air. https://gigawatt-ledger.pages.dev/site/councilbluffs/. Modelled from disclosed capacity; site-level error ±40%.
Include the estimate’s date, whether it describes current or proposed capacity, and its uncertainty. Get an embeddable card.
Gigawatt Ledger · September 2026. Water and air figures are estimated from public records and disclosed capacity. How we calculate them · Use this in your community.