Can Wastewater Cool AI Data Centers? Satirical Ad Spotlights Real Water Recycling Solutions

A tongue-in-cheek marketing campaign featuring former NFL player Jason Kelce has drawn attention to the environmental footprint of artificial intelligence infrastructure by suggesting people use their urine to cool computer servers. While pouring raw urine onto computing equipment is impractical, industry experts explain that treated municipal wastewater—which includes toilet sewage—is already an expanding resource used to cool commercial data facilities and conserve drinking water supplies.

What Happened

Beverage brand Liquid Death partnered with Garage Beer and former Philadelphia Eagles star Jason Kelce to release a satirical advertisement addressing water usage in artificial intelligence data centers. In the commercial, Kelce humorously urges viewers to donate urine to prevent computing servers from overheating, asking participants to sing along to the slogan of peeing on computers to save humanity.

While the promotional pitch is purely satirical, industry analysts say it touches on an established operational method. Michael Obradovitch, vice president of Data Center Global Accounts at Ecolab, told TechCrunch that alternative water sources are already actively utilized across the industry to cool facilities, offsetting demand for municipal potable drinking water.

Key Highlights

• Untreated urine cannot be used directly: Bruno Pigott, executive director of the WateReuse Association and former acting assistant administrator at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), noted that urine contains salts, urea, bacteria, and organic matter that leave mineral deposits, requiring non-stop cleaning. Furthermore, evaporating raw urine during evaporative cooling would create severe odor and operational challenges.
• Wastewater treatment methods: Facilities process sewage and municipal wastewater using membrane bioreactors, reverse osmosis, and ultraviolet light, purifying it for industrial cooling or even drinking standards.
• High reliance on potable water persists: In Loudoun County, Virginia—home to more than 250 data centers—facilities used roughly 200 million gallons of recycled water daily as of 2025. According to Loudoun Water, this covers 43 percent of data center water usage, leaving 57 percent (260 million gallons per day) to be supplied by potable drinking water.
• Infrastructure gaps: Engineering experts note that shifting to recycled water requires substantial municipal treatment infrastructure nearby, which is frequently absent when facilities are built in rural regions.
• Corporate funding and policy proposals: Tech companies are beginning to fund infrastructure directly, such as Meta committing at least $270 million toward wastewater infrastructure projects. Concurrently, the WateReuse Association is advocating for a 30 percent tax credit to help industries build out recycled water networks.

Why This Matters

Data centers demand massive amounts of water to maintain operational temperatures, creating competition with municipal drinking water supplies. Dr. Greta Zornes, practice leader for water reuse at CDM Smith, noted that while industrial cooling has utilized recycled water for decades, demand driven specifically by data centers is rising rapidly.

However, the transition to non-potable water is limited by physical capacity. Rural wastewater plants often lack the volume required to serve massive computing hubs, meaning substantial capital and construction time are required before alternative water can be deployed at scale. This resource pressure is occurring alongside growing local resistance; a cited Gallup poll indicated that roughly seven in 10 Americans oppose data centers being constructed in their communities.

What to Watch Next

The pace of transition toward recycled water will depend heavily on infrastructure expansion and policy support. Key developments to track include whether proposed legislation granting a 30 percent tax credit for water recycling systems advances, and how effectively municipal partnerships—such as Meta’s $270 million wastewater projects—can expand processing capacity to relieve pressure on local drinking water reservoirs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why can’t raw urine be applied directly to data center cooling systems?

According to water treatment experts, raw urine contains urea, bacteria, salts, and various organic compounds that produce mineral deposits and necessitate constant maintenance. Additionally, passing raw urine through evaporative cooling systems would vaporize foul odors into the surrounding air.

How is sewage converted into safe cooling water?

Municipal treatment plants use advanced filtration processes, including membrane bioreactors, reverse osmosis, and ultraviolet light exposure, purifying sewage into clean water suitable for industrial cooling or potable use.

How much recycled water do major data center hubs currently consume?

In Loudoun County, Virginia, data centers use approximately 200 million gallons of recycled water every day. However, this represents 43 percent of their total cooling needs, with the remaining 260 million gallons per day drawn from potable drinking water supplies.

Source: TechCrunch reporting, with campaign details from Liquid Death and data provided by Loudoun Water, CDM Smith, Ecolab, and the WateReuse Association.