By Company
Google Data Center Disputes: The Case That Made Its Water Use Public, and Where It Builds
No neighbor has sued Google over a data center on our tracker. The case that involves it most directly is The Dalles v. The Oregonian, in which a city sued a newspaper to keep Google's water use secret and lost: the records showed the company using roughly 29 percent of the city's water. Google's footprint runs through Oregon, Nebraska, North Carolina, Alabama, and Virginia, and it withdrew from a contested Indiana site. The record, sourced.
Google's data center in The Dalles, Oregon, photographed 2015-05-17. Google's Oregon campus sits on the Columbia River, and how much water it draws there stayed secret until a newspaper went to court to find out.
Tony Webster / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0. Resized for web. (license) (original)
SueDataCenters.org is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Google. This photograph illustrates reporting and is not evidence of any claim.
Google on the tracker
- Tracker entries
- One: City of The Dalles v. The Oregonian, the water records case, settled December 2022
- What the records showed
- Google's data centers using roughly 29 percent of The Dalles's water
- Neighbor lawsuits against Google
- None documented on the tracker as of September 2026
- Footprint in contested markets
- The Dalles, Oregon; Papillion and Omaha, Nebraska; Lenoir, North Carolina; Jackson County, Alabama; Virginia; withdrew from Franklin Township, Indiana
Key Takeaways
- No resident lawsuit against a Google data center is documented on our tracker as of September 2026; Google's entry is The Dalles water records case, in which the city sued The Oregonian to keep Google's water use confidential and settled in December 2022 by releasing it.
- The released records showed Google using roughly 29 percent of The Dalles's water, a number that reset the national conversation about data center water and made such figures gettable elsewhere.
- Google's contested-market footprint is broad: Oregon, Nebraska, North Carolina, Alabama, and Virginia, and it withdrew from a proposed site in Franklin Township, Indiana amid local opposition, per our Indiana page.
- The absence of a neighbor suit is not evidence of an absence of disputes; it reflects where Google has built and how early the litigation wave is.
- The Dalles case is the template for the first step in any data center fight: getting the numbers, through public records law, before arguing about them.
In this article
Has Google been sued over a data center? Not by a neighbor, as far as our tracker documents. Google's place on the tracker is a records case, not a damages case: City of The Dalles v. The Oregonian, in which an Oregon city sued a newspaper to keep Google's water consumption secret and, in December 2022, settled by releasing the records. They showed Google's data centers using roughly 29 percent of the city's water. That number did more for data center accountability than most lawsuits, because it made water use a public fact that every other community could demand. Google builds in Oregon, Nebraska, North Carolina, Alabama, and Virginia, and it withdrew from a contested Indiana site; none of those has produced a resident suit yet. The record, and why the records case matters, is below.
Every case on the tracker
- SettledOregonThe Dalles v. The Oregonian: The Case That Made Google's Water Use Public
Settled December 14, 2022, Wasco County Circuit Court
In 2021 the City of The Dalles, Oregon sued its own newspaper to keep Google's water use secret as a trade secret. The December 2022 settlement released ten years of records showing Google used about 29 percent of the city's water, paid the paper's legal fees, and ended Google's site-level water secrecy nationwide. Why this settled case still matters to every data center neighbor.
Every Google site in the registry
53 sites on the public record in 23 states: 18 operating, 18 under construction, 6 permitted, 11 proposed. 14 carry documented opposition or litigation. 8.7 GW planned. Most contested first.
- Google Project Spade Campus · New Florence, MOUnder construction · 1.2 GW · In litigation
- Google Hermantown Data Center · Hermantown, MNProposed · 600 MW · In litigation
- Google Project Louie (Morgan County) · Monrovia, INUnder construction · 390 MW · In litigation
- Google Project Skyway (Pine Island) · Pine Island, MNProposed · In litigation
- Project Dazzler · Franklin Furnace, OHPermitted · In litigation
- Google Nebraska AI Campus (proposed) · NEProposed · 1 GW · Contested
- Project Cannoli · Van Buren Township, MIProposed · 1 GW · Contested
- Google The Dalles Data Center Campus · The Dalles, OROperating · 300 MW · Contested
- Google Palo Data Center Campus · Palo, IAProposed · Contested
- Google Project Helium (Barber County) · Sharon, KSPermitted · Contested
- Google Stillwater Data Center Campus · Stillwater, OKUnder construction · Contested
- Project Peanut · Chester, VAUnder construction · Contested
- Project Skye · Midlothian, VAPermitted · Contested
- Project Spring (Sand Springs) · Sand Springs, OKProposed · Contested
- Project Tembo · Cheyenne, WYUnder construction · 2.7 GW · Mixed reception
38 more in the full registry, or download the data and filter by company.
The case that made the numbers public
In 2021 The Oregonian asked The Dalles, a city on the Columbia River, how much water Google's data centers used. The city refused, citing a confidentiality agreement with Google, and then sued the newspaper to block the release. The suit failed in the court of public opinion before it failed anywhere else, and in December 2022 the city settled and produced the records: Google was using roughly 29 percent of the city's water. Our full report on the Dalles case covers the litigation and its aftermath.
The case is on the tracker because of what it established. Data center water use is not a trade secret when it comes from a public utility, and the first move in any community's fight is a records request. Every water dispute since, from Newton County, Georgia to the Imperial Valley, has started with a number, and The Dalles is the reason those numbers exist.
Where Google builds
Google's campuses in contested markets include The Dalles, the Omaha and Papillion area of Nebraska, Lenoir in the North Carolina foothills, Jackson County, Alabama, and Northern Virginia. In Indiana, the company withdrew from a proposed site in Franklin Township amid local opposition, as our Indiana page records, in a state where nearly a third of counties have since moved to restrict data centers. No resident lawsuit against any of these facilities is documented on the tracker.
If you live near a Google site and are dealing with noise, water, or a proposed expansion, the tools are the same as for any operator: the records request The Dalles made possible, the evidence guide, and, when a claim exists, our free case review, which connects you with an independent attorney in our network who handles data center cases in your state, at no cost and with no obligation.
Frequently asked questions
Has Google been sued over a data center?
Not by a neighbor, as far as our tracker documents as of September 2026. Google's tracker entry is The Dalles v. The Oregonian, a public records case in which the city of The Dalles, Oregon sued a newspaper to keep Google's water use confidential and settled in December 2022 by releasing records showing Google using roughly 29 percent of the city's water.
How much water does Google's data center in The Dalles use?
Records released in December 2022 after the city settled its suit against The Oregonian showed Google's data centers using roughly 29 percent of The Dalles's water.
Where does Google build data centers?
In markets covered by our state pages, Google has facilities in The Dalles, Oregon; the Omaha and Papillion area of Nebraska; Lenoir, North Carolina; Jackson County, Alabama; and Northern Virginia, and it withdrew from a proposed site in Franklin Township, Indiana.
Is a Google data center disrupting your home?
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