JD

I dunno, I think it's actually reasonable enough to say that data centers "use" water colloquially, at least in the context of aquifers. If data centers (and the similarly water-intensive combined-cycle gas turbines favored to power them) pump water from an aquifer at a rate that exceeds the rate at which the aquifer is recharged, the water table drops. If you depend upon a well for your water supply, and the water table drops below the depth your well, for all intents and purposes, it's "used up" until you pay $30-50k to drill a new well. Maybe this isn't the most sophisticated language, but we're communicating with the public and it's functional. Anyway, this is a significant problem in regions where people frequently rely upon shallow residential wells because public water supplies aren't available - like much of rural Texas, a prime target for data centers - particularly when many of these same regions are so prone to severe droughts and experiencing explosive population growth. Video related: my well going dry last year due to the severe 5y drought, and coincidentally, the same day I discovered the local data center developer bragging about their permit that allows them to pump millions of gallons of water per day.

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