Canton Agreed to Supply Water for Data Centers

The city has committed to providing water for four massive projects as it considers new industrial rate structures.

Updated on Oct. 9, 2026 in Data Centers

Bold flat-color editorial illustration depicting industrial piping and a large valve, representing municipal water utility agreements. — Canton officials have agreed to supply water to four proposed data centers as the city evaluates a new industrial water rate structure. AI Illustration. Upload story photo >

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Canton officials have agreed to provide water to four proposed data centers, citing an existing surplus of 7 million gallons in daily system capacity. The projects include a mix of facilities in Canton and Perry Township, which are expected to reach a combined peak usage of 1.7 million gallons of water daily.

Why it matters

Canton maintains this excess capacity following the departure of legacy industrial firms, but the sudden influx of data center proposals has spurred officials to rethink current water pricing. The city is now evaluating a new industrial rate structure to manage the high volume of water required for these sites.

The proposed facilities include significant power capacities, with Project Shelby at 320 megawatts, Midwest Digital Gateway at 312 megawatts, Amazon at 240 megawatts, and DAMAC Digital at 225 megawatts. The Amazon project alone accounts for 900,000 gallons of the expected daily peak water demand.

The players

Amazon

A global provider of cloud computing and e-commerce infrastructure operating large-scale data centers.

DAMAC Digital

A developer of data center infrastructure focusing on high-density computing and cooling efficiency.

The details

Data centers draw water directly for cooling systems or indirectly through electricity generation requirements for cooling. While the DAMAC Digital facility plans to utilize a closed-loop air-cooled system—a design that recirculates internal air through a heat exchanger to lower temperatures without high water consumption—other sites rely on more water-intensive cooling. Developers are required to fund all necessary infrastructure upgrades, including extending water lines to their specific plots on sites like Faircrest Street SW.

Three data center proposals were submitted in Canton over the past three months.
City officials confirmed the water agreement in October 2026.

The Tech Race

Canton is leveraging infrastructure left by legacy industrial firms to compete for massive data center capacity. This move positions the city as a critical node in the broader race to supply utilities for high-power digital infrastructure projects across the Great Lakes region.

Residents should not see immediate changes to service, as the city reports 7 million gallons of unused daily capacity. However, the introduction of a new industrial water rate for large-volume users may shift how water costs are distributed across the city's 100,000 customers.

The takeaway

The trajectory of Canton’s growth now depends on balancing high-demand industrial utility use with the needs of 100,000 residents. Watch for the city's upcoming formal proposal on industrial water rate adjustments to see how they reallocate the cost of these massive projects.