Enact the Responsible Water Use by Data Centers Act

As Introduced

136th
General Assembly

Regular
Session
S. B. No. 378

2025-2026

Senators Blackshear, Weinstein

Cosponsor: Senator Smith

To
amend sections 1521.01 and 1521.99 and to enact sections 9.72 and
1521.232 of the Revised Code
regarding
the withdrawal and consumptive use of water by data centers and to
name the act the Responsible Water Use by Data Centers Act.

BE
IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF OHIO:

Section
1.
That
sections 1521.01 and 1521.99 be amended and sections 9.72 and
1521.232 of the Revised Code be enacted to read as follows:

Sec.
9.72.
(A)
As used in this section:

(1)
"Water or sewer system" means a system operated by an
entity authorized to provide water services to consumers or
authorized to provide sewer services to consumers under Chapter 504.,
729., 735., 743., 4905., 4909., 6101., 6103., 6115., 6117., or 6119.
of the Revised Code.

(2)
"Data center" means a facility consisting of one or more
buildings dedicated to housing computer systems, servers, storage,
and network equipment to collect, process, store, and distribute
large amounts of data.

(3)
"Infrastructure costs" means direct and indirect water and
sewer services infrastructure costs.

(B)
The owner or operator of a data center is responsible for payment to
a water and sewer system of all infrastructure costs incurred by the
water and sewer system that are attributable to the establishment and
operation of the data center. The water and sewer system may collect
payment for such costs from the data center in a manner determined
appropriate by the system. No other ratepayer within the service area
of the water and sewer system is responsible for payment of
infrastructure costs that are the responsibility of the owner or
operator of the data center under this division.

Sec.
1521.01.
As
used in this chapter:

(A)
"Consumptive use" means a use of water resources, other
than a diversion, that results in a loss of that water to the basin
from which it is withdrawn and includes, but is not limited to,
evaporation, evapotranspiration, and incorporation of water into a
product or agricultural crop.

(B)
"Diversion" means a withdrawal of water resources from
either the Lake Erie or Ohio river drainage basin and transfer to
another basin without return. "Diversion" does not include
evaporative loss within the basin of withdrawal.

(C)
"Other great lakes states and provinces" means states other
than this state that are parties to the great lakes basin compact
under Chapter 6161. of the Revised Code and the Canadian provinces of
Ontario and Quebec.

(D)
"Water resources" means any waters of the state that are
available or may be made available to agricultural, industrial,
commercial, and domestic users.

(E)
"Waters of the state" includes all streams, lakes, ponds,
marshes, watercourses, waterways, wells, springs, irrigation systems,
drainage systems, and other bodies or accumulations of water, surface
and underground, natural or artificial, regardless of the depth of
the strata in which underground water is located, that are situated
wholly or partly within or bordering upon this state or are within
its jurisdiction.

(F)
"Well" means any excavation, regardless of design or method
of construction, created for any of the following purposes:

(1)
Removing ground water from or recharging water into an aquifer,
excluding subsurface drainage systems installed to enhance
agricultural crop production or urban or suburban landscape
management or to control seepage in dams and levees;

(2)
Determining the quantity, quality, level, or movement of ground water
in or the stratigraphy of an aquifer, excluding borings for
instrumentation in dams, levees, or highway embankments;

(3)
Removing or exchanging heat from ground water, excluding horizontal
trenches that are installed for water source heat pump systems.

(G)
"Aquifer" means a consolidated or unconsolidated geologic
formation or series of formations that are hydraulically
interconnected and that have the ability to receive, store, or
transmit water.

(H)
"Ground water" means all water occurring in an aquifer.

(I)
"Ground water stress area" means a definable geographic
area in which ground water quantity is being affected by human
activity or natural forces to the extent that continuous availability
of supply is jeopardized by withdrawals.

(J)
"Person" has the same meaning as in section 1.59 of the
Revised Code and also includes the United States, the state, any
political subdivision of the state, and any department, division,
board, commission, agency, or instrumentality of the United States,
the state, or a political subdivision of the state.

(K)
"State agency" or "agency of the state" has the
same meaning as "agency" in section 111.15 of the Revised
Code.

(L)
"Cone of depression" means a depression or low point in the
water table or potentiometric surface of a body of ground water that
develops around a location from which ground water is being
withdrawn.

(M)
"Facility" has the same meaning as in section 1522.10 of
the Revised Code.

(N)
"Hydrologic study area" means the area within a four-mile
radius from the boundary of the withdrawal area.

(O)
"Well field" means a contiguous land area containing two or
more wells that provide water to a facility.

(P)
"Withdrawal area" means the proposed well or well field
location or locations.

(Q)
"Development" means any artificial change to improved or
unimproved real estate, including the construction of buildings and
other structures, any substantial improvement of a structure, mining,
dredging, filling, grading, paving, excavating, and drilling
operations, and storage of equipment or materials.

(R)
"Floodplain" means the area adjoining any river, stream,
watercourse, or lake that has been or may be covered by flood water.

(S)
"Floodplain management" means the implementation of an
overall program of corrective and preventive measures for reducing
flood damage, including the collection and dissemination of flood
information, construction of flood control works, nonstructural flood
damage reduction techniques, and adoption of rules, ordinances, or
resolutions governing development in floodplains.

(T)
"One-hundred-year flood" means a flood having a one per
cent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year.

(U)
"One-hundred-year floodplain" means that portion of a
floodplain inundated by a one-hundred-year flood.

(V)
"Structure" means a walled and roofed building, including,
without limitation, gas or liquid storage tanks and manufactured
homes.

(W)
"Substantial improvement" means any reconstruction,
rehabilitation, addition, or other improvement of a structure, the
cost of which equals or exceeds fifty per cent of the market value of
the structure before the start of construction of the improvement.
"Substantial improvement" includes repairs to structures
that have incurred substantial damage regardless of the actual repair
work performed. "Substantial improvement" does not include
either of the following:

(1)
Any project for the improvement of a structure to correct existing
violations of state or local health, sanitary, or safety code
specifications that have been identified by the state or local code
enforcement official having jurisdiction and that are the minimum
necessary to ensure safe living conditions;

(2)
Any alteration of an historic structure designated or listed pursuant
to federal or state law, provided that the alteration will not
preclude the structure's continued listing or designation as an
historic structure.

(X)
"Substantial damage" means damage of any origin that is
sustained by a structure if the cost of restoring the structure to
its condition prior to the damage would equal or exceed fifty per
cent of the market value of the structure before the damage occurred.

(Y)
"National flood insurance program" means the national flood
insurance program established in the "National Flood Insurance
Act of 1968," 82 Stat. 572, 42 U.S.C. 4001, as amended, and
regulations adopted under it.

(Z)
"Conservancy district" means a conservancy district
established under Chapter 6101. of the Revised Code.

(AA)
"Data center" has the same meaning as in section 9.72 of
the Revised Code.

Sec.
1521.232.
(A)
In addition to any other applicable permit required under this
chapter or Chapter 1522. of the Revised Code, no person shall allow a
data center that the person owns or operates to withdraw waters of
the state that results in the consumptive use of any amount of water
without first obtaining a data center consumptive use permit from the
chief of the division of water resources under this section.

(B)
An owner or operator of a data center shall submit an application for
a data center consumptive use permit to the chief on a form the chief
prescribes. In the application, the applicant shall declare and
document all of the information specified in division (B) of section
1521.23 of the Revised Code and any other information the chief may
require by rule.

(C)
The chief shall adopt rules in accordance with Chapter 119. of the
Revised Code that establishes criteria for issuing a data center
consumptive use permit under this section. Such rules shall include
all criteria described in division (A) of section 1521.29 and any
other criteria the chief may require.

(D)(1)
The chief shall determine the period for which each permit approved
under this section will be valid and specify the expiration date.

(2)
The chief shall establish rules providing for the transfer of
permits. A permit may be transferred on the conditions that the
quantity of water withdrawn not be increased and that the purpose of
the withdrawal not be changed.

(E)
The chief may hold public hearings upon any application for a permit.

(F)(1)
Within a time established by rule, the chief shall do one of the
following:

(a)
Notify the applicant that an application the applicant filed under
this section is approved or denied and, if denied, the reason for
denial;

(b)
Notify the applicant of any modification necessary to qualify the
application for approval.

(2)
Any person who receives notice of a denial or modification under
division (F)(1) of this section is entitled to a hearing under
Chapter 119. of the Revised Code if the person sends a written
request for a hearing to the chief within thirty days after the date
on which the notice is mailed or otherwise provided to the applicant.

(3)
The chief shall issue a permit to an applicant whose application is
approved under this section. However, the chief shall not issue a
permit to a data center that proposes to withdraw waters of the state
in an amount that would result in a new or increased consumptive use
of more than an average of five million gallons of water per day in
any thirty-day period.

(G)
No person shall allow a data center that the person owns or operates
to withdraw waters of the state in an amount that would result in a
new or increased consumptive use of more than an average of five
million gallons of water per day in any thirty-day period.

(H)(1)
The chief shall revoke a permit under this section without a prior
hearing if the chief determines that the quantity of water being
withdrawn exceeds the quantity stated in the permit application.

(2)
The chief may suspend a permit if the chief determines that the
continued withdrawal of water will endanger the public health,
safety, or welfare. Before suspending a permit, the chief shall make
a reasonable attempt to notify the permittee that the chief intends
to suspend the permit. If the attempt fails, notification shall be
given as soon as practicable following the suspension. Within five
days after the suspension, the chief shall provide the permittee an
opportunity to be heard and to present evidence that the continued
withdrawal of water will not endanger the public health, safety, or
welfare.

If
the chief determines before the expiration date of a suspended permit
that the withdrawal of water can be resumed without danger to the
public health, safety, or welfare, the chief shall, upon request of
the permittee, reinstate the permit.

(I)
Any six or more residents of this state may petition the chief for an
investigation of a withdrawal of water resources that they allege is
in violation of a permit issued under this section.

The
petition shall identify the permittee and detail the reasons why the
petitioners believe that grounds exist for the revocation or
suspension of the permit under this section.

Upon
receipt of the petition, the chief shall send a copy to the permittee
and, within sixty days, make a determination whether grounds exist
for revocation or suspension of the permit under this section.

(J)
Each permittee shall submit to the chief an annual report containing
such information as the chief may require by rule.

Sec.
1521.99.
(A)
Whoever violates division (E)(1) of section 1521.05 or division
(E)(1) of section 1521.16 of the Revised Code is guilty of a
misdemeanor of the fourth degree. All fines collected pursuant to
this division shall be deposited in the state treasury to the credit
of the water management fund created in section 1521.22 of the
Revised Code.

(B)
Whoever violates section 1521.06 or 1521.062 of the Revised Code
shall be fined not less than one hundred dollars nor more than one
thousand dollars for each offense. Each day of violation constitutes
a separate offense. All fines collected pursuant to this division
shall be deposited in the state treasury to the credit of the dam
safety fund created in section 1521.06 of the Revised Code.

(C)
Whoever violates section 1521.22 of the Revised Code or the terms or
conditions of a permit issued under that section shall be fined not
more than ten thousand dollars for each day of violation. All fines
collected pursuant to this division shall be deposited in the state
treasury to the credit of the water management fund created in
section 1521.22 of the Revised Code.

(D)
Whoever violates section 1521.23

or 1521.232
of
the Revised Code or the terms or conditions of a permit issued under
section
1521.232
or
1521.29
of the Revised Code is guilty of a misdemeanor of the fourth degree.
All fines collected pursuant to this division shall be deposited in
the state treasury to the credit of the water management fund created
in section 1521.22 of the Revised Code.

Section
2.
That
existing sections 1521.01 and 1521.99 of the Revised Code are hereby
repealed.

Section
3.
This
act shall be known as the Responsible Water Use by Data Centers Act.