{"690517":{"#nid":"690517","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Data Centers, Microbes, and the Future of Water Reuse","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAs metro Atlanta becomes a magnet for hyperscale data centers, the region faces a twin challenge: securing enough water to cool these facilities while ensuring that wastewater reuse doesn\u0027t introduce new public health risks. At Georgia Tech, Katherine Graham, assistant professor of environmental engineering and Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems (BBISS) Faculty Fellow, is working at exactly that nexus, using viruses, bacteria, and advanced analytics to understand how water reuse and cooling systems can support data center growth without compromising community health.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Data centers are important, and so are their cooling needs. I don\u0027t think they\u0027re going away,\u0022 she said. \u0022But there needs to be a lot of investigation to develop guidelines for operating these facilities based on how microbes behave so that we can get the economic benefit and protect the communities where they operate.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETracing Viruses Across Georgia\u0027s Water Systems\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThrough a Sustainability Next Seed Grant project administered by the BBISS, Graham\u0027s lab focuses on water reuse safety, particularly in Georgia communities facing water stress. Her team works with municipal reuse facilities, where, she said, \u201cWe look at what comes out of wastewater treatment plants, what exists in the natural waters they discharge treated water into, and what comes into downstream drinking water plants at their intake.\u0022 Her team is especially interested in pathogens such as viruses and phages.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPhages \u2014 viruses that infect bacteria rather than humans \u2014 pose no direct human hazard. Still, because they travel through water systems similarly to viruses that can harm people, they serve as powerful ecological markers. \u0022They can be good surrogates for human viruses,\u0022 she said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis work builds on Graham\u0027s wastewater surveillance experience dating to 2018, which became central during the Covid-19 pandemic. Her lab helped develop actionable public health guidelines to show how wastewater can be used to monitor for mpox outbreaks.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFrom Cooling Towers to Data Centers: A Proactive Public Health Lens\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile Graham\u0027s Sustainability Next Seed Grant project isn\u0027t exclusively about data centers, the connection to their cooling systems is direct. Data centers need to dissipate massive quantities of heat \u2014 typically with water-hungry cooling towers \u2014 and are increasingly turning to treated wastewater as a supply.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Reuse can supply more water of sufficient quality for these cooling systems,\u0022 Graham said. But beyond the quantity issue lies an underexplored dimension: microbial risk.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECooling towers have long been linked to Legionnaires\u0027 disease, with documented outbreaks occurring miles downwind of a source. \u0022For most healthy people, it may not be a problem,\u0022 Graham noted, \u0022but for the immunocompromised and elderly, it can be a really big problem.\u0022 What makes this especially concerning is how little is known. \u0022It\u0027s not well quantified. It\u0027s not well characterized,\u0022 she said. \u0022There\u0027s been no national study collecting cooling-tower waters and looking at the prevalence of these bacteria.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThere is currently no systematic, national effort to characterize the prevalence of Legionella and other opportunistic pathogens in any cooling towers \u2014 let alone the potential additional risk of building more cooling systems to accommodate the needs of hyperscale data centers.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBBISS has been central to sharpening her focus here. Exposing Graham to colleagues working on energy and water quantity challenges helped her connect the microbiology dots. \u0022A lot of the data center ideas I\u0027ve started to think about have been generated by BBISS faculty presenting their own work,\u0022 she said. \u0022Given that cooling towers are already a problem in pre-AI settings, it seems like a good proactive idea to be aware of the problem going into the age of AI.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGraham is now writing proposals to study microbial communities in cooling towers, analyzing water, air, and biofilms under different operating conditions. Her call to industry is direct: Partner early. \u0022I would be extremely happy to collaborate with anyone interested in this problem. Industry buy-in would be critical \u2014 and so helpful \u2014 to get it done.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHeat Waves, Infrastructure, and Legionella\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGraham\u0027s lab also examines how climate-driven extreme heat affects drinking water systems. Working with utilities in the Southwest, her team studies how prolonged heat waves warm distribution-system water, accelerate disinfectant loss, and shape the persistence of microorganisms in drinking water distribution systems.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022We were able to see temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (105 degrees Fahrenheit) \u2014 with a maximum of 52 (126 degrees Fahrenheit) \u2014 which is very warm,\u0022 she said. \u0022Most of the literature refers to testing conducted at much lower temperatures, like room temperature.\u0022 Such elevated temperatures, combined with nutrients and stagnation, can allow opportunistic pathogens to thrive.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETeaching and Outreach\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGraham teaches undergraduate environmental engineering and graduate courses in quantitative microbial risk assessment and public health microbiology. She serves as associate editor for \u003Cem\u003EWater Research\u003C\/em\u003E and has hosted a microbiology outreach workshop for K-12 students through Georgia Tech\u2019s \u0026nbsp;Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing (CEISMC).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe through line across her work is consistent: science that anticipates risk and informs action. \u0022As we expand this data center infrastructure, a proactive approach should be taken to understanding concerns that, maybe, haven\u0027t been fully addressed yet.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn a region and a world betting big on AI, her research offers a timely reminder: Progress depends not just on computing power, but on ensuring that the water that keeps these systems from melting down remains safe for the communities living alongside them.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThrough a Sustainability Next Seed Grant project administered by the BBISS, Graham\u0027s lab focuses on water reuse safety, particularly in Georgia communities facing water stress.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Metro Atlanta has become a magnet for hyperscale data centers and securing enough cooling water with wastewater reuse has unknown public health risks."}],"uid":"27338","created_gmt":"2026-05-27 18:20:24","changed_gmt":"2026-05-27 18:37:43","author":"Brent Verrill","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-05-27T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-05-27T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"680362":{"id":"680362","type":"image","title":"Katherine_Graham_portrait.jpg","body":null,"created":"1779906452","gmt_created":"2026-05-27 18:27:32","changed":"1779906576","gmt_changed":"2026-05-27 18:29:36","alt":"Portrait of an individual photographed outdoors, shown from the shoulders up and wearing a dark red top. The background includes a textured stone column, greenery, and part of a building with a window visible behind the subject.","file":{"fid":"264618","name":"Katherine_Graham_portrait.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/05\/27\/Katherine_Graham_portrait.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/05\/27\/Katherine_Graham_portrait.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":414974,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/05\/27\/Katherine_Graham_portrait.jpg?itok=JmK9zlJR"}}},"media_ids":["680362"],"groups":[{"id":"244191","name":"Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems"},{"id":"660398","name":"Sustainability Hub"}],"categories":[{"id":"194606","name":"Artificial Intelligence"},{"id":"144","name":"Energy"},{"id":"154","name":"Environment"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"194836","name":"Sustainability"}],"keywords":[{"id":"188360","name":"go-bbiss"},{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"},{"id":"195154","name":"hyperscale datacenters"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"194566","name":"Sustainable Systems"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:brent.verrill@research.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EBrent Verrill\u003C\/a\u003E, Research Communications Program Manager, BBISS\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["brent.verrill@research.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}