Submitted 2 days ago by Davriellelouna@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8gy7lv448o
“Our goal is that by 2030, we’ll be putting more water back into the watersheds and communities where we’re operating data centres, than we’re taking out,” says Will Hewes, global water stewardship lead at Amazon Web Services (AWS), which runs more data centres than any other company globally.
How can this possibly make sense? Mine owner says, “by 2030 we’ll be putting more gold into the ground than we’re taking out!” I can only assume this is some carbon credits style of nonsense.
I really hope what they mean is clean water.
It can happen; there’s a paper mill by me that was actually an important part of the river cleanup process when the river was far worse than it is today. It takes water from the river, uses it for their needs, then treats it and returns it to the river far far cleaner than they took it out, which has been a net benefit for the entire downstream river ecosystem.
Thing is, where are they going to find this not-particularly-clean water to treat and return? Are they going to need all new infrastructure built to accommodate this?
And why is that cheaper/easier/whatever than just making a closed loop cooling system?
Intel was lauded for this same thing in the early 2000s at the fab I worked at, since ultrapure water (literal H2O) was required to rinse the chip wafers the water going out was cleaner than going in.
I’m still not entirely sure why these data centers require such massive amounts of water when we’ve been running heat exchange loops in nuclear plants for decades.
global water stewardship lead at Amazon
How can this possibly make sense?
No. Your expectation is wrong. You cannot expect him to make any sense.
Such people do not get paid for making sense, but for creating lies. Dreamy, foggy, false images to distract you, to make you forget about asking for the truth.
The article isn’t clear about the mechanism by which the data center is supposedly affecting the woman’s well. Is the data center using well water, depleting the supply of ground water in the area? Or is the claim that the construction disturbed the geology enough to cause problems with flow and sediment in a well 366 meters away? Does anyone know or have theories?
It’s unclear, because the relevant official bodies insist that things are fine
Both of my parents assisted the BBC with this article. Super proud of their ongoing efforts to fight against data centers.
It’s really sad how local town councils are selling out their citizens for perceived personal gain, capitulating to companies who could easily afford to create their own infrastructure to support these facilities, but refuse to do so because of greed. trump admin will only embolden them through easing regulations and removing all accountability for the impacts they have.
They have no laws to protect their water?
He takes us to a creek downhill from a new construction site for a data centre being built by US firm Quality Technology Services (QTS).
George Dietz, a local volunteer, scoops up a sample of the water into a clear plastic bag. It’s cloudy and brown.
Well, maybe they didn’t have proper sediment control but a creek is a lot different than well water. Most people don’t drink out of creeks, sediment control is done more for the purpose of protecting fish habitat.
Hauls buckets of water to flush her toilet
What? You’re concern is sediment in your well water and then go haul dirty brown sediment filled water from the creek to flush your toilet instead?
Buy a sediment filter for your well water. Even people not beside giant data centres should have one just because it keeps the system functional and running better. It is practically a requirement to have one.
Brkdncr@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I’ve lived with well water. You must filter it and test it regularly because it changes. It can also go dry.
Jason2357@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
In the article, this isn’t about pollution but sediment from very nearby construction. Yeah, that happens. Kind of why most decent municipal governments plan out stuff so you don’t have people on wells right next to giant buildings. The common exception being gravel quarries, that do regularly disrupt locals wells. This is on them. You should be building data centres in light industrial zones where everyone nearby is on city water.
Brkdncr@lemmy.world 2 days ago
The article is also claiming humid areas are good for evaporative cooling, which is incorrect.
Also that above ground runoff is affecting a well is hard to believe. Wells are deep enough that natural filtration removes any sediment.
The whole article is questionable.
Thwompthwomp@lemmy.world 2 days ago
But combine that with someone dumping thousands of gallons of wastewater into the ground basically across the street and weirder things are going to happen.
Brkdncr@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I can’t find evidence that datacenters dump water into the ground.
iopq@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I have to filter the local water too because it’s very hard and tastes like crap. Hilariously the filter will eventually start to grow algae
merde@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
algae isn’t about water quality, but sun. You either don’t change your filter frequently or your place has a nice exposure to sun (or both, of course)