CHEYENNE — Data center development is expanding beyond southeast Wyoming, and the Wyoming Outdoor Council is taking its concerns about water, energy, wildlife and local impacts to communities across the state.

The conservation organization held a community meeting Tuesday in Cheyenne as part of an educational effort to discuss how Wyoming can manage the rapid growth of hyperscale and artificial intelligence data centers.

The council’s tour began Monday in Laramie. It’s scheduled to continue with meetings in Casper, Cody, Evanston, Sheridan, Gillette and Lander.

John Burrows, WOC energy and climate policy director, said the organization has traditionally focused on public lands, wildlife, and clean air and water.

The data center industry touches on each of those issues, he said.

Burrows said that earlier in the day Tuesday, he and other WOC officials took a tour of data center sites in Laramie County with Cheyenne City Councilman Larry Wolfe.

“To be honest, as someone who’s lived in Lander the last decade, it was pretty eye-opening just to see the scale and the scope of the developments you will have in your backyard,” Burrows said.

He said despite the rapid boom in AI data centers locally, WOC wants to move the conversation beyond artificial intelligence and focus on the physical infrastructure being developed across Wyoming.

Most notably, Burrows said WOC is trying to avoid advocating for a complete ban on data centers, and rather focus on responsible data center development.

“We’re not trying to have a referendum on AI,” Burrows said. “We want to talk about where the rubber is hitting the road, which is where the developments are happening, where we’re seeing data centers being built, and what that means in those contexts.”

Jocelyn Wulf, WOC data center campaign manager, gave an overview of the potential resource impacts of hyperscale facilities during the meeting.

Unlike older data centers, which could consume thousands of gallons of water each day for cooling, Wulf said modern data centers use closed-loop cooling systems that recycle the water.

However, Wulf said water use is still a concern due to the energy needed to power the facilities.

She referenced the recently announced Project Tembo — formerly known as Project Jade — which is a data center/power plant partnership between Google and Tallgrass.

The Laramie County project is currently designed to operate at around 2.7 gigawatts, she said, but is planned to eventually scale up to around 10 gigawatts of electricity.

“They are using a natural gas power plant to power that facility,” Wulf said. “That natural gas power plant will use tens of millions of gallons of water every day to generate the amount of power that the facility needs. So while the facility itself might not be using a lot of water, that power generation does.”

Wulf also mentioned concerns with potential wastewater discharges and the chemicals used in cooling systems.

She pointed to a recent incident where the contractor working on the Meta data center in Cheyenne was found to have released Cupriavidus gilardii into the city’s wastewater system.

Wulf said the incident is a good example of why she thinks more transparency and reporting requirements regarding water use are necessary.

“Data centers are operating behind a kind of smokescreen,” Wulf said. “People in Wyoming deserve to know what’s going on around them.”

Tuesday’s presentation also focused on Wyoming’s Industrial Siting Act, which requires certain large industrial projects to undergo a state review.

Wulf said developers can avoid that process when locating projects within existing industrial parks, which leaves more of the review burden to local governments.

Gov. Mark Gordon signed Executive Order 2026-03, “Data Centers the Wyoming Way,” in June. The order establishes a framework addressing water sustainability, wildlife, transparency, grid stewardship, workforce development and community investment. It provides guidance to state agencies but does not establish a new data center permitting program.

Wulf said one way communities can ensure they benefit from industrial development is by requiring developers to solidify a Community Benefits Agreement before a project receives final approval.

The agreements are meant to ensure a community receives perks regarding the development, such as requiring developers to hire locally, build a new community park, donate money to a specific community project, such as building housing, and more.

Wulf ended the presentation by telling attendees to speak to their community leaders and elected officials.

“The data center boom is here,” Wulf said. “It’s happening. It’s not theoretical. You all see evidence of this every day. The question is, what is Wyoming going to do about it? And I would say, on the local level, communities really have a big opportunity right now to decide what they want the future to look like.”