Yorkville passed an agreement for the developers of both the 1,034-acre Project Cardinal and the 502-acre Project Steel to split the costs for a $231,365 water planning study.

The city is not responsible for any costs of the engineering analysis, according to city documents.

“The study will evaluate the water system improvements required to accommodate the substantial demand of both data center developments and future utility expansion within the northwest service area,” city officials say in documents.

Both Prologis, L.P. and Pioneer Development, LLC have to cover $115,682 in costs to Engineering Enterprises, Inc. for the study.

According to city staff, “extensive off-site infrastructure improvements” are needed to provide the necessary city water and sanitary sewer service for each development.

This comes as the city is undergoing a massive water infrastructure construction as part of the $150 to $165 million Lake Michigan Water sourcing project. City Administrator Bart Olson has said plans to switch to Lake Michigan water far predate any talks of data centers.

With the subject of water usage being a precious commodity across town, Olson provided revised numbers for Project Cardinal’s water consumption at the Oct. 14 city council meeting.

Olson said Project Cardinal is expected to use 350,000 gallons of water per day at full build-out of its 14 warehouse buildings. This is an increase from the developers saying the data center campus would use 310,000 gallons per day at a Sept. 9 city council meeting.

The average American household uses about 300 gallons of water per day, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This means Project Cardinal at full build-out would now use the same amount of daily water as 1,166 new homes, up from the previous calculation of 1,033 new homes.

Olson said during a presentation in June that Project Steel would use about 47 million gallons of water annually at full build-out. With 365 days in a year and an average of 350,000 gallons of water per day, Project Cardinal can be expected to use around 127.75 million gallons of water annually at full build-out.

With the city slating around 3,000 acres for data center construction, Olson said in June that at full build-out of all proposals, they are estimated to use about 200 million gallons of water per year.

This rate is roughly one-quarter the entire water usage of all of Yorkville annually. It would be like adding the water usage of about 1,827 new homes.

However, between just Project Steel and Project Cardinal, that’s 174.75 million gallons of water annually.

Considering the other numerous data proposals in town have been projected to use around 236-333 gallons of water per acre per day, according to city officials, some new figures for total water consumption might be needed.

This comes as the city recently approved water rate hikes for residents of around 20% for five years to help cover the costs of the Lake Michigan project. With the project’s costs ballooning, Olson said the city is re-evaluating whether larger increases are necessary.