The Water They Leave Off the Slide: What a Data Center Really Costs
If you sit through enough data center meetings, you’ll hear a line like this: “Our facility uses a closed-loop cooling system. It uses about as much water as a restaurant.” That can be true. It can also be one of the most misleading things said in these meetings. The number isn’t wrong. The problem is the numbers they leave out. A data center can use almost no water at its own fence line. But it can still be the reason hundreds of millions of gallons of water get boiled away every year. It can create a steady stream of chemical wastewater that a rural county has no way to handle. And more and more often, it brings its own power plant to town. The water and the waste don’t disappear. They just move to places nobody puts on the slide. ...