<a href="https://datacenters.google/discover-more/photo-gallery/" rel="nofollow">https://datacenters.google/discover-more/photo-gallery/ and scroll down to "The Dalles, Oregon" and well... look at them.
> Google’s water use in The Dalles has nearly tripled in the past five years, and the company’s data centers now consume more than a quarter of all the water used in the city.
> That’s according to records released this week after the city settled a lawsuit against The Oregonian/OregonLive and agreed to hand over data on Google’s water consumption. The company’s water use is poised to continue soaring in the years ahead, as Google has plans for two more data centers along the Columbia River.
> Google is contemplating two new server farms on the site of a former aluminum smelter in The Dalles, where it already has an enormous campus of data centers on its property along the Columbia River.
> Google says it needs more water to cool its data centers, but neither the company nor the city will say how much more – only that The Dalles can’t meet Google’s needs without expanding its water system. The deal calls for Google to pay for the upgrade.
> Even so, the proposed water pact has attracted scrutiny and skepticism in The Dalles, a riverfront city of about 15,000 approximately 80 miles east of Portland.
> Residents and nearby farmers are concerned about the city’s long-term water supply amid an ongoing drought. They complain they don’t know enough about Google’s actual water use.
----
It is possible to do some cooling with closed cycle, though more than a few data centers have been built with open cycle cooling in places were the water table is precarious or in parts of the country under drought conditions.
Unless a data center construction discloses its water use and shows that it isn't using a lot, then people are assuming its using as much as it can (and up to the water rights or capacity that it has). ... Which isn't an unreasonable assumption to make.
> Google’s data centers gulped down nearly 550 million gallons of water in The Dalles in 2025. That’s nearly 40% of all the water consumed in the entire city and a huge jump from the year before.
> The city expects that local water consumption will soar over the next several years and bills will nearly double as The Dalles works to upgrade its aging water system. But the city won’t say how much of the rising demand comes from Google, citing a promise to keep the numbers secret and confidentiality provisions in Oregon public records law.
And data centers are being very cagy with their water consumption because the amount of water that it uses is related to the amount of compute it has and that is being held as an industry secret.
Also in the pic your provided the center literally sits on a river? Who cares? That means they likely are using their own water system meaning the people in the city are completely isolated.
> Therefore, the Legislative Assembly declares that the waters of the state may not be appropriated, stored or diverted for use outside the basin of origin except in compliance with the provisions of ORS 537.801 (Definitions) to 537.860 (Vested rights protected), including, if applicable, the prior approval of the Legislative Assembly under ORS 537.810 (Diversion or appropriation of waters from basin of origin without legislative consent prohibited).
Evaporative cooling of a data center would constitute a diversion of the water outside of the Columbia River Basin.
Furthermore, the river water rights aren't owned by the city (or the aluminum plant that Google bought). There are other treaties and regulations on the Columbia River to ensure that it has adequate supply for power and for fish.
Google is using ground water rights and pulling. Furthermore, even though there's a river there, the area is in drought conditions. The supply of water percolating from the river into the groundwater isn't sufficient for human needs in that area.
> About 70-80% of the water consumed annually by residents and businesses in The Dalles comes from Crow Creek Reservoir. Fed by South Fork Mill Creek, Crow Creek and a pipeline that diverts flows from the Dog River, it held 123 million gallons on Sept. 4, roughly seven million gallons less than the same time last year.
> While the situation isn’t dire, as Public Works Director Dale McCabe emphasized, it’s not normal. The city issued similar voluntary restrictions last summer after two of its now five groundwater wells went offline; where that was spurred by mechanical failures, however, the current advisory is a product of environmental factors.
> “This is fairly new,” McCabe said. “I’m not remembering a period where we went into curtailment for quite some time before this.”
---
Note that "it held 123 million gallons on Sept. 4, roughly seven million gallons less than the same time last year" in context of Google's use of water in 2025: "Google’s data centers gulped down nearly 550 million gallons of water in The Dalles in 2025."
Those are different numbers (current reservoir amount and total use) ... but its something that people will compare.
scarmig · · focus · HN ↗
[dead]
johnsmith1840 · · focus · HN ↗
shagie · · focus · HN ↗
<a href="https://datacenters.google/discover-more/photo-gallery/" rel="nofollow">https://datacenters.google/discover-more/photo-gallery/ and scroll down to "The Dalles, Oregon" and well... look at them.
And then its reported water use:
<a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2022/12/googles-water-use-is-soaring-in-the-dalles-records-show-with-two-more-data-centers-to-come.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2022/12/googles-wa...
> Google’s water use in The Dalles has nearly tripled in the past five years, and the company’s data centers now consume more than a quarter of all the water used in the city.
> That’s according to records released this week after the city settled a lawsuit against The Oregonian/OregonLive and agreed to hand over data on Google’s water consumption. The company’s water use is poised to continue soaring in the years ahead, as Google has plans for two more data centers along the Columbia River.
<a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2021/11/the-dalles-sues-to-keep-googles-water-use-a-secret.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2021/11/the-dalles...
> Google is contemplating two new server farms on the site of a former aluminum smelter in The Dalles, where it already has an enormous campus of data centers on its property along the Columbia River.
> Google says it needs more water to cool its data centers, but neither the company nor the city will say how much more – only that The Dalles can’t meet Google’s needs without expanding its water system. The deal calls for Google to pay for the upgrade.
> Even so, the proposed water pact has attracted scrutiny and skepticism in The Dalles, a riverfront city of about 15,000 approximately 80 miles east of Portland.
> Residents and nearby farmers are concerned about the city’s long-term water supply amid an ongoing drought. They complain they don’t know enough about Google’s actual water use.
----
It is possible to do some cooling with closed cycle, though more than a few data centers have been built with open cycle cooling in places were the water table is precarious or in parts of the country under drought conditions.
Unless a data center construction discloses its water use and shows that it isn't using a lot, then people are assuming its using as much as it can (and up to the water rights or capacity that it has). ... Which isn't an unreasonable assumption to make.
<a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2026/04/more-oregon-water-for-googles-data-centers-more-concern-over-secrecy.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2026/04/more-orego...
> Google’s data centers gulped down nearly 550 million gallons of water in The Dalles in 2025. That’s nearly 40% of all the water consumed in the entire city and a huge jump from the year before.
> The city expects that local water consumption will soar over the next several years and bills will nearly double as The Dalles works to upgrade its aging water system. But the city won’t say how much of the rising demand comes from Google, citing a promise to keep the numbers secret and confidentiality provisions in Oregon public records law.
And data centers are being very cagy with their water consumption because the amount of water that it uses is related to the amount of compute it has and that is being held as an industry secret.
johnsmith1840 · · focus · HN ↗
shagie · · focus · HN ↗
<a href="https://oregon.public.law/statutes/ors_537.801" rel="nofollow">https://oregon.public.law/statutes/ors_537.801
> Therefore, the Legislative Assembly declares that the waters of the state may not be appropriated, stored or diverted for use outside the basin of origin except in compliance with the provisions of ORS 537.801 (Definitions) to 537.860 (Vested rights protected), including, if applicable, the prior approval of the Legislative Assembly under ORS 537.810 (Diversion or appropriation of waters from basin of origin without legislative consent prohibited).
Evaporative cooling of a data center would constitute a diversion of the water outside of the Columbia River Basin.
Furthermore, the river water rights aren't owned by the city (or the aluminum plant that Google bought). There are other treaties and regulations on the Columbia River to ensure that it has adequate supply for power and for fish.
Google is using ground water rights and pulling. Furthermore, even though there's a river there, the area is in drought conditions. The supply of water percolating from the river into the groundwater isn't sufficient for human needs in that area.
<a href="https://www.oregonwaterdata.org/datasets/94c6ec9b19de4ce6b7e05596d368971b_0/explore?location=45.407105%2C-121.162217%2C10" rel="nofollow">https://www.oregonwaterdata.org/datasets/94c6ec9b19de4ce6b7e...
You can see that the groundwater in The Dalles has a status of "Critical".
Citizens there have been under water restrictions for some time.
<a href="https://www.thedalles.gov/news_detail_T4_R275.php" rel="nofollow">https://www.thedalles.gov/news_detail_T4_R275.php
> Voluntary water restrictions currently in place.
<a href="https://www.columbiagorgenews.com/news/poor-snowpack-and-the-grasshopper-fire-spur-voluntary-water-restrictions-for-all-city-users-in/article_229ff801-2b6c-46a0-ba66-49bf03abe21d.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.columbiagorgenews.com/news/poor-snowpack-and-the...
> About 70-80% of the water consumed annually by residents and businesses in The Dalles comes from Crow Creek Reservoir. Fed by South Fork Mill Creek, Crow Creek and a pipeline that diverts flows from the Dog River, it held 123 million gallons on Sept. 4, roughly seven million gallons less than the same time last year.
> While the situation isn’t dire, as Public Works Director Dale McCabe emphasized, it’s not normal. The city issued similar voluntary restrictions last summer after two of its now five groundwater wells went offline; where that was spurred by mechanical failures, however, the current advisory is a product of environmental factors.
> “This is fairly new,” McCabe said. “I’m not remembering a period where we went into curtailment for quite some time before this.”
---
Note that "it held 123 million gallons on Sept. 4, roughly seven million gallons less than the same time last year" in context of Google's use of water in 2025: "Google’s data centers gulped down nearly 550 million gallons of water in The Dalles in 2025."
Those are different numbers (current reservoir amount and total use) ... but its something that people will compare.