QTS Uses 30M Gallons Water Unpaid

Data Center Consumes 30 Million Gallons of Water Unmetered During Georgia Drought

• Quality Technology Services (QTS), owned by Blackstone, used an estimated 29 to 30 million gallons of water without a working meter.
• The unmetered usage occurred over a 15-month construction period for the Project Excalibur development.
• Fayette County charged QTS $147,474 in retroactive fees, equating to approximately $0.005 per gallon.
• This rate is significantly lower than what local residents pay for water.
• The issue arose from a procedural error during the transition to a cloud-based metering system amid a state-declared drought emergency in Georgia.

Quality Technology Services’ Project Excalibur consumed nearly 30 million gallons of unmetered water during a drought emergency in Georgia. The company was charged $147,474 retroactively at a rate lower than that paid by local residents.