Gigawatt Ledger · one-page briefing
Campus profile Operating
Sarpy County
Meta Platforms · Papillion, Nebraska
The resource footprint
Modelled averageIn one day, this campus consumes about
2.7150-metre swimming pools
Filled with the volume of water consumed by the campus and its electricity supply.
The actual estimate1,787,947 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
- Outside-air economization with evaporative peaking
- Basis
- Fitted to a published figure of 220 million gallons a year
- Claimed vs observed
- This record covers Meta Platforms only, not all of Sarpy County. Google Papillion is now a separate record with 548.2 million gallons consumed in 2025. Google Omaha reported another 183.9 million gallons outside both records. Meta’s existing 220 million gallon fit is retained; it is not a county-wide total.
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
- $28.6–81.3 million a year. Lower bound is EASIUR national mid-range; upper is EPA benefit-per-ton at a ~$12M VSL.
- Statistical deaths
- 6.77 a year at that VSL — a national-average conversion from tons, not a local concentration study.
- Equals
- 584,840 cars of NOx
- Where it burns
- SPP — Kansas / Oklahoma
- Generation mix
- Wind 45 · Gas 26 · Coal 22
- Diesel backup
- Diesel backup is not yet counted for this campus, so on-site air figures are a floor.
- CO₂e
- 760 kt/yr — climate, not air quality
The project, approvals and community concerns
- Who asked for it
- Meta — self-build
- Who approved it
- Sarpy County + Papillion incentives; Omaha Public Power District supply, with OPPD adding gas peakers partly for this load
- What it serves
- Meta consumer app serving and AI inference
- IT capacity
- 350 MW current capacity / 700 MW full-build scenario
OPPD, a public power district answerable to elected board members, has had to add fossil peaking capacity for data center growth — putting the tradeoff directly on a ballot in a way investor-owned utilities avoid.
Keep this guide handy
41.1069°, -96.0433°
Quote or share these estimates
Gigawatt Ledger (2026). Sarpy County: water and air. https://gigawatt-ledger.pages.dev/site/sarpy/. 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.