Ohio EPA Proposal to Allow Data Centers’ Untreated Discharge Draws Rebuke from Sen. Bernie Moreno
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a draft permit that would allow data centers to discharge untreated wastewater into public waterways, and U. S. Sen. Bernie Moreno has publicly objected. The debate matters now because the policy change, announced in October 2025 with a public comment period that closed in December, would apply broadly across a state that hosts more than 100 data centers.
Sen. Bernie Moreno’s Opposition
Sen. Moreno, R-Ohio, made his objections public on the social platform X, urging that the state should not sacrifice water quality to benefit data centers. He wrote, “Ohio should not compromise the integrity of our waterways to help data centers. The companies putting these centers up have so much money we expect the water going back into our rivers to be cleaner than ever before!” His statement frames the change as a trade-off between economic development and the health of public waterways.
The senator’s intervention represents a clear political challenge to the Ohio EPA’s maneuver: an elected federal official drawing attention to a state-level regulatory shift that would depart from the agency’s traditional permitting practice.
Ohio EPA Permit Change and Data Center Footprint
The Ohio EPA has long issued wastewater permits on a project-by-project basis. The draft permit on the table would be a notable departure, applying broadly to all data centers currently operating in the state as well as those built in the future. That change in permitting approach would alter the regulatory framework that governs how cooling and process water from data centers is handled.
Ohio hosts more than 100 data centers that run services for artificial intelligence, social media and other technology platforms. Companies with facilities in the state include Meta, Google, Amazon and Amazon Web Services. Data centers rely on significant amounts of water to cool equipment; the draft permit would affect how that used water can be returned to public waterways.
The Ohio EPA announced the proposed policy change in October 2025. A public comment period on the draft permit closed in December, marking a procedural milestone that precedes any final agency decision.
How the Proposal Could Alter Water Protections
Under the current practice of project-by-project permits, individual facilities face site-specific review and conditions; a blanket permit would standardize requirements across facilities. The effect of that shift would be to move from tailored approvals to a uniform rule governing discharge practices for a sector concentrated in the state.
Because the draft would permit untreated wastewater to enter public waterways, critics like Moreno argue the change risks degrading river quality. Proponents of a generalized permit framework might argue it provides regulatory clarity for a fast-growing industry, but the proposal’s immediate effect is to open a debate over whether the statewide approach adequately protects aquatic resources.
What makes this notable is that the regulatory choice intersects directly with the presence of major technology companies in Ohio and the scale of their water use: a statewide permit would touch more than 100 existing facilities and any that are constructed moving forward. The timing matters because the public comment window has closed, so the agency is positioned to weigh those comments as it considers a final course.
The Ohio EPA’s next steps will determine whether the draft becomes a permanent change in how data centers are regulated or whether the agency modifies the approach in response to public and political pushback. For now, the proposed permit and Moreno’s public objections have elevated scrutiny of how the state balances industrial growth with river protections.
