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Google Council Bluffs Data Center

Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie County, Iowa · All 53 Google sites · Every Google case on our tracker

OperatingNo reception on recordAI likelyRecord updated August 14, 2026

Google Council Bluffs Data Center is an operating data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa (Pottawattamie County), operated by Google. The public record puts it at announced 2007, a reported $2.5 billion investment.

Every line on this page traces to a public source listed at the bottom. Where a figure was looked for and not found, the row says so. A blank is never a zero.

Facility record

Operating

Operator
Google
Facility type
Data center, AI use likely
Location
Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie County, IA
Coordinates
41.1674, -95.7930 (approximate)
Power capacity
Not established from a public source
Land
Not established from a public source
Investment
$2.5 billion
Announced
2007
Utility
MidAmerican Energy
Power source
Wind
Cooling
Not established from a public source
Water use
2.74 million gallons a day, reported
Jobs
Not established from a public source
Public subsidy
Iowa Economic Development Authority sales & use-tax refund (data center expansion project), $20 million, State of Iowa, 2015
Community reception
No reception on record
Source confidence
Confirmed by multiple independent sources or official documentation

Timeline from the record

Newest first. Record entries come from the filings and reports the registry cites. Coverage entries are headlines from publisher feeds we monitor daily, linked to the outlet; last checked September 14, 2026.

  1. 2007
    Operating
    Operational since 2007 per Google's own Iowa location page; multi-building campus, actively expanding. Source: Google

Opposition and litigation at this site

Nothing on record as of August 14, 2026. No lawsuit, organized opposition, or contested hearing over Google Council Bluffs Data Center in Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie County, Iowa appears in the sources this registry tracks. That is an absence in our sources rather than a finding that none exists, and local opposition often predates any coverage a national dataset would pick up.

If you live near this site and something is happening that this page does not show, that is worth telling us. Send us the document and it goes in the record with the source attached. For sites where opposition is already established, see every contested site we track.

Power and water

Google signed a contract with MidAmerican Energy for up to 407 MW of wind energy (tracked via RECs from MidAmerican's Wind VIII program) specifically to supply the Council Bluffs data center campus, one of Google's largest renewable commitments at the time.

Google's per-site disclosure for 2024 shows the Council Bluffs data center consumed 1 billion gallons of water that year - the most of any Google data center - which averages about 2.74 MGD. Reported by The Current (26 Aug 2025) from Google's environmental-report site-level figures. This is reported CONSUMPTION, not withdrawal; withdrawal is higher. By contrast Google's air-cooled sites disclose far less: Pflugerville, TX at 10,000 gallons and Storey County, NV at 1.5 million gallons for the same year, which is consistent with Council Bluffs being water-cooled.

Public money on the record

ProgramAmountGranted byYear
Iowa Economic Development Authority sales & use-tax refund (data center expansion project)$20 millionState of Iowa2015

Notes on the record

Google's flagship Iowa data center in Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie County, operational since 2007, heavily expanded across multiple buildings (the Southlands campus on Bunge Ave among them). Distinct from Google's tracked Cedar Rapids campus and from the separate proposed Google/Tenaska Nebraska project. Per Google's own location page, Google has invested $20B+ across Iowa since 2007 (Council Bluffs + Cedar Rapids combined, not a site-specific figure). No site-specific IT-load MW is disclosed. Coordinates are an approximate geocode of a disclosed campus address; a county-parcel pass could upgrade precision to exact.

What the record does not establish, and the document that would

In every fight on our tracker the decisive fact came out of a public records request. These are the requests for this site.

  • Power capacity in megawatts
  • Permanent jobs promised
  • Land area
  • How the community has received it
Which document closes each gap
Power capacity in megawatts
The utility's large load service agreement, the interconnection request in the grid operator's queue, or the electrical site plan in the permit file.
Permanent jobs promised
The economic development application or incentive agreement, which usually states a job commitment and a clawback.
Land area
The rezoning application, the plat, or the deed recorded with the county.
How the community has received it
Planning commission and governing body minutes, public comment records, and any petition or lawsuit filed in the county.

Have one of these documents? Send it to us and we will add it to the record with attribution.

Our reporting on this site

Other sites within 30 miles

Distances are between recorded coordinates, many of which are a city or county centroid, so treat them as approximate. Cumulative load on one utility and one aquifer is the question a planning commission rarely asks.

Questions people ask about this site

Is there opposition to the Google Council Bluffs Data Center in Council Bluffs?

Nothing on record as of August 14, 2026. No lawsuit, organized opposition, or contested hearing over Google Council Bluffs Data Center in Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie County, Iowa appears in the sources this registry tracks. That is an absence in our sources rather than a finding that none exists, and local opposition often predates any coverage a national dataset would pick up.

Has anyone filed a lawsuit over the Google Council Bluffs Data Center?

No lawsuit over Google Council Bluffs Data Center appears in the record we track as of August 14, 2026. Residents most often reach a lawyer over water supply, well drawdown, noise from cooling plant, property value, or a rezoning approved without the notice the ordinance required. If any of that is happening near this site, it is worth a review whether or not a case has been filed yet.

How much water does Google Council Bluffs Data Center use?

2.74 million gallons a day is the reported figure on record. Google's per-site disclosure for 2024 shows the Council Bluffs data center consumed 1 billion gallons of water that year - the most of any Google data center - which averages about 2.74 MGD.

Who operates Google Council Bluffs Data Center, and how big is it?

Google is the operator on record. We hold 53 sites for that company across the registry. No capacity figure is on record for this site.

How to cite this page

SueDataCenters.org Data Center Registry, "Google Council Bluffs Data Center," updated August 14, 2026, https://suedatacenters.org/data-centers/google-council-bluffs-ia.

Facility data from Compute Atlas (E. Kubiak), version 1.32.0 (September 7, 2026), licensed CC BY 4.0, record https://www.compute-atlas.com/facilities/google-council-bluffs-ia, retrieved September 14, 2026.

Corrections with a public source are welcome at the Compute Atlas record or through our contact page. The whole registry is available as CSV and JSON under CC BY 4.0.

Sources for this record

As compiled and cited by Compute Atlas, with our own reporting appended. Archived links are used where the original has moved.

  1. 1.Google Iowa, official location page: Council Bluffs operational since 2007, multi-building campus · Google · retrieved July 19, 2026
  2. 2.HIFLD Electric Retail Service Territories (ORNL/DOE-CESER, 2023-08 vintage) · Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) / HIFLD · retrieved July 23, 2026
  3. 3.Google Inc partners with MidAmerican Energy to purchase 407 MW wind · retrieved July 24, 2026
  4. 4.Google's Iowa Data Center Buys 407 MW of RECs · retrieved July 24, 2026
  5. 5.Data Center Knowledge, Iowa officials approve tax breaks for Google data center expansion · retrieved July 25, 2026
  6. 6.Data centers consume massive amounts of water - companies rarely tell the public exactly how much · The Current · retrieved August 14, 2026

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