Let’s talk about water and the effects of data centers on the water ways.

Quick note, we’ve made it to 10 publications! Thanks for reading and sticking around. Now back to the post.

Moment of vulnerability, this is the chat log from a recent Gemini search I used because I was really in the moment and curious about water usage in data centers. I think this isn’t authoritative fact but rather an interesting experiment to follow my curiosity with the following AI conversation:

everytime I do an AI google search how much water am I consuming – Ryan

Yes I don’t capitalize or use proper punctuations in my chats

A single AI Google search uses about five drops (roughly 0.26 milliliters) of water.

based on data from 2023, these are all real websites but please verify for yourself on their relevance*

where does the evaporated cooling get transferred to? – Ryan

In an evaporative cooling system, the water used to cool AI data centers is split into two entirely different places: the atmosphere and the local sewer system.
Because data centers generate immense heat, they rely on a two-part thermodynamic process to get rid of it. Here is exactly where that water goes:
[1, 2]

1. The Evaporated Water (70% – 85%) goes into the Atmosphere
2. The Unevaporated Water (15% – 30%) goes into Municipal Sewers

does this water become safe to drink again or is it too heavely concentrated with heavy metals? – Ryan

Yes, municipal water systems can and do clean this water so it is safe to drink again, but the process is highly complex because cooling-tower blowdown is heavily concentrated with minerals, chemicals, and trace heavy metals.

how many local municapalities can actually handle this multistage water cleaning? – Ryan

Very few local municipalities—estimated at less than 5% to 10% nationwide—have the highly specialized “advanced” or “tertiary” wastewater infrastructure (like industrial Reverse Osmosis or Advanced Oxidation) required to fully clean data center cooling-tower blowdown on their own.
The Solution: Shift to On-Site Pre-Treatment
Because cities cannot handle this waste, the EPA and local regulators are tightening rules. Instead of relying on the town, data center developers are now being forced to build private, on-site industrial wastewater pre-treatment plants.

How many actually use these on site pre treatment? – Ryan

The vast majority of existing data centers do not use advanced on-site wastewater pre-treatment plants. Historically, less than 15% of facilities have operated with comprehensive on-site chemical precipitation or advanced filtration systems for their blowdown. [1, 2]

End Conversation*

Photo by Taylor Vick on Unsplash

What do we take away from this?

Judge the worthiness of Gemini’s words on it’s own words but this began a deep rabbit hole that I’m still in the middle of going down but I definitely think it is worth it for us to consider the simple idea of what it’s like to drink water that’s been circulated in a data center. I really do believe this is valuable information for individuals to be aware of what’s going on with the water in their local areas.

Even if it goes through the water cycle and get’s cleaned naturally, you still have high mineral deposits in the immediate environment. Even if you don’t think any of these sources are reputable and you don’t trust AI, there’s precedent to start this conversation. Because how this wastewater is handled in the course of our local communities and what needs to happen to create better treatment are the beginnings of an important problem that can be solved.

And you may be wondering, “Ryan, didn’t you just use 1.3 milliliters of water generating this information and directly contradicting everything you’re trying to argue?”

I am, and I’m not scared of you! Instead think about how many other people are googling at the same time… how much water is that?

Now I don’t have all the answers but that’s why I’m sharing this conversation. If you know more about datacenter water usage in your local area or find errors in anything Gemini is saying, lets talk about it on social media using the links below.

Until next time, go enjoy a latte!