Thread

1. motionlessveloc · 1791146077 · focus · HN ↗

   I don't really understand the hand-wringing about data centers and water. Unlike fossil fuels, when you "use" water, it doesn't go away, it goes back out into the environment. And since DCs use it for cooling, not some industrial process, it doesn't even contaminate the water in any meaningful way.

   The one exception is if they're using fossil water pumped from aquifers, which doesn't renew (back into the aquifer that is), but nobody seems to bother to make the distinction.

   1. eesmith · 1791147197 · focus · HN ↗

      Your use of "into the environment" is too broad.

      If you pump water out of one watershed into another, perhaps via evaporation and wind transport, then you better expect the downstream users, deprived of their water, to complain.

      For example, the upstream users of water from the Colorado use so much that Colorado River Delta is nearly always dry. Or read about the California water wars.

      Further, increased competition for surface water raises prices, which encourages additional aquifer extraction.

      1. nradov · 1791149788 · focus · HN ↗

         The problem in California is that competition for water doesn't raise prices. Much of our water supply is allocated based on property rights rather than as a commodity so prices for some users remain artificially lower than the market price. This causes waste and shortages. Eventually we'll have to reform the system but there's no political will to do so.

         1. eesmith · 1791177376 · focus · HN ↗

            This data center is in Nebraska, not California, and motionlessveloc's comment that I replied to wasn't even limited to the US as there are local protests against data center water use in other countries.

            Yes, water rights law is complicated. California's access to water from the Colorado River is due to the Colorado River Compact, which exists because state disagreed on the details of how water "goes back out into the environment".

            That said, I was under the impression that many data centers use municipal water, which is more subject to market price, and not water allocated by property rights. While certainly some do, it isn't always so.

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