Botched Redactions Expose Google Data Center Usage
Original: Improper redaction reveals Google Data Center water and electricity usage
Why This Matters
Data center resource consumption is under growing scrutiny as AI infrastructure expands.
Improper PDF redactions in Nebraska annual reports revealed Google's Lincoln data center used 13.3 megagallons of water and 52.65 MW of peak electricity in 2025, plus $55.8M in expected tax refunds.
Nebraska law requires data centers to file annual reports with the Department of Water, Energy, and Environment (DWEE), but Google's three Nebraska facilities — operating under the names Agate LLC (Lincoln), Fireball Group LLC (Papillion), and Westwood Solutions LLC (Omaha) — claimed water and electricity figures as trade secrets under state statute. The redactions failed: highlighting the blacked-out text boxes and pasting into another document revealed the hidden numbers.
Agate LLC's Lincoln site reported 52.65 megawatts of peak electrical demand and 13.299 megagallons of water use annually — roughly 20 Olympic pools, and less than half of Lincoln's single-day city consumption on Sept. 29. Across the six reporting data centers, total water use reached 765 million gallons — enough to fill over 1,159 Olympic pools.
The Papillion facility was the heaviest water user, reporting 547.88 megagallons for 2025. The redaction failures also exposed expected tax refunds: Agate LLC anticipates $55.8M, Fireball LLC $39.2M, and Westwood Solutions $22.6M — all under Nebraska's sales and use tax exemptions. Google's reports noted no rebates or incentive payments had been received yet under the ImagiNE Nebraska Act. The Lincoln center covers 288,530 square feet. Station 10/11 filed public records requests on Sept. 30 for the formally unredacted documents.