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Palo, IA · Linn County · 42.061°N 91.793°W
Straight-line distances. Nearest named waterway via the USGS National Hydrography Dataset; nearest transmission line via HIFLD. Baseline water stress and groundwater trend describe the surrounding hydrological basin (WRI Aqueduct 4.0, CC BY 4.0) — not this facility’s measured water use. Principal-aquifer system underlying the location (USGS, mapped at 1:2,500,000 — regional context, not site hydrogeology).
Google is helping recommission the Duane Arnold Energy Center with the intention that it power this campus; Iowa Public Radio reported the plant would supply over 90 percent of the data center's power, about 565 MW. That is a plant-supply figure, not a confirmed IT load for the campus.
Iowa Public Radio (2026-03-04) reported the proposed project's water usage at approximately 12 million gallons per day. Linn County's data center ordinance required a water balance study; that study was funded through the county development framework and is 'on pause' after Google moved to annex into Palo instead.
Residents raised water and energy use, noise and light pollution at months of Palo public meetings. Linn County supervisors objected to Google pursuing annexation into Palo to avoid county water-use and economic agreements; Supervisor Sami Scheetz called the workaround 'fundamentally wrong.' Linn County adopted an 18-month moratorium (effective 2026-07-01) on new EU-3 large-scale data center rezoning applications, and Palo passed its own data center ordinance on 2026-07-21.
Google eyes data center in Palo to bypass Linn County regulationsGoogle approached the Linn County Board of Supervisors about a project of up to six buildings near the Duane Arnold Energy Center.
Google exploring data center project near PaloConfirmed: data verified against official filings, permits, or direct operator announcements.
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