re: How real is a water scarcity threat, re: Building Data Centers?

I use it. It's just funny you don't see the irony in you asking ChatGPT to basically tell you if ChatGPT is going to damage the earths water supply.

quote:

---

*sigh*

---

From your own link:

quote:

---

Technologies already in production and ready for 2026 projects:

95–99% on-site water recycling using reverse osmosis + crystallization
Direct-to-chip and single-phase immersion cooling (reduces evaporative load 70–90%)
Co-location adjacent to municipal wastewater treatment plants (fast-growing trend in Ohio, Iowa, Virginia)
Atmospheric water generation systems now operating at scale in desert regions

---

Hence why most of the uproar about water usage is simply incorrect and based on outdated information.

Your article also details this.

quote:

---

Hence why most of the uproar about water usage is simply incorrect and based on outdated information.

---

It is not incorrect. Hence why the uproar and the regulations and innovation to correct the water usage issue.

Without the uproar, none of the above happens.

And even then, I'm dubious of the regulations and self reporting. I've been on the regulatory side of corporations too long to know the work arounds for this.

quote:

---

Without the uproar, none of the above happens.

---

It was happening regardless. On-die closed-loop cooling is far more efficient for GPUs which power most AI-focused datacenters now coming online or being planned, which is what groups are freaking out over.

You getting rich off these data center builds baw?

quote:

---

Biggest Hyperscaler Water Users: 2024-2025 Rankings Latest disclosed or reliably estimated annual direct water consumption: Microsoft: 7.8 billion gallons (2024, +34% YoY) Google: 6.3–6.8 billion gallons Amazon Web Services: estimated 5.5–7 billion gallons Meta: 1.1 billion gallons Oracle Cloud: 600–900 million gallons and rising rapidly Notable facility extremes: Google Council Bluffs, Iowa: >1 billion gallons in a single year Google The Dalles, Oregon: historically consumed >25% of local municipal supply Microsoft Quincy, Washington air-cooled campuses: <50,000 gallons/year (versus new liquid-cooled campuses targeting <0.1 L/kWh using reclaimed water)

---

All of this is still happening right now.

Again, to act like water consumption of data centers is a non issue is disingenuous. We are debating the definition of rape. The use of aquifer water for cooling anything is rape, IMO. Exxon needs to fix their shite as well. This isn't isolated to data centers, but they are egregious offenders and thankfully are being reigned in on new builds. The old builds are still there and they are not all being refitted for alternative cooling methods.

quote:

---

You getting rich off these data center builds baw?

---

No. I in fact have a 960k square foot one coming online this year about five miles down the road from me, which prompted me to do research on the impact.

Not to mention professional interest based on what I do for a living.

Power consumption is a far larger issue than water consumption, which I stated in my initial post in this thread. Water consumption is nowhere near the issue it once was. For reasons that I and others in this thread have pointed out. It's being used as a scare tactic by groups opposed to data center construction, either for NIMBY reasons, or political reasons.

quote:

---

Yup, industry makes the decision that maximizes shareholder value unless their is a reason not to... This can often result in "irrational" or "harmful" long term decisions in favor of short term savings. Local government and potential future liability can serve as the only checks on this process by ensuring that the long term needs are accounted for and weighed at the outset of a project.

---

And frankly a huge portion of local government has no material knowledge about this level of tech or environmental impact

quote:

---

for Louisiana specifically, we have no recent studies or estimates on what our state water budget is, and thus, have no real way of knowing if data center proposals are going to overdraw a particular aquifer or not.

---

We should have something like a campus to study water. They would surely produce a water budget for us.

quote:

---

What more do you need other than realize it's all liberal B.S. than the fact Bernie Sanders opposes them?

---

Ah yes, socialism is when water clean.

You have to be pro dirty water to be a Republican these days.