The amount of water used for data centers pales in comparison to the water used to grow cattle feed under the blistering desert summer sun in places like the Imperial, San Joaquin, and Colorado River Valleys. Why isn't using a precious resource like this for farming that is ill out of place in the deserts not part of the discussion? We could move those feed farms to the Midwest, replacing the now useless and inefficient corn ethanol croplands.
This is true! I tried to acknowledge that in this post, and it's worth unpacking more in the future. My hope with this post was mostly to illustrate how localized some of this is. It's not just about total use but localized use and infrastructure needs when it comes to data center siting. Even in cases where there is enough water to serve a data center, there are infrastructure challenges and quesitons about cost specific to data centers, as this paper explores. https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.02705
Great insights - thank you Daniel! Your comparison to mining made me wonder: as data centers become a new kind of extractive industry in the West, where the resource being mined is not only water, but local tolerance for risk, opacity, and boom-bust development... what would it take for communities to evaluate these projects beyond acre-feet, maybe in terms of accountability, public benefit, and long-term water resilience?
This is such a good question and I don't have a full answer. Am I showing my journalism bias here if I answer, in part, that transparency is an important starting point? Making sure companies are required to disclose the full scope and tradeoffs of their projects, allowing communities to actually engage in the process, rather than coming in after a decision has more or less been made by economic development authorities. I'm hoping to dig into this report in more depth, but you might find it interesting. Talks a lot about local capacity building. https://www.law.berkeley.edu/research/clee/research/wheeler/water-innovation/data-center-water-use/
The amount of water used for data centers pales in comparison to the water used to grow cattle feed under the blistering desert summer sun in places like the Imperial, San Joaquin, and Colorado River Valleys. Why isn't using a precious resource like this for farming that is ill out of place in the deserts not part of the discussion? We could move those feed farms to the Midwest, replacing the now useless and inefficient corn ethanol croplands.
Congrats on the MS!
This is true! I tried to acknowledge that in this post, and it's worth unpacking more in the future. My hope with this post was mostly to illustrate how localized some of this is. It's not just about total use but localized use and infrastructure needs when it comes to data center siting. Even in cases where there is enough water to serve a data center, there are infrastructure challenges and quesitons about cost specific to data centers, as this paper explores. https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.02705
Congrats on graduation/heading to Berkeley and all the best with writing the book. (I am slogging along with you!)
Thanks Morgan! The writing struggle is real. Would be fun to compare notes one of these days.
I would love that! Water writers support happy hour!
Great insights - thank you Daniel! Your comparison to mining made me wonder: as data centers become a new kind of extractive industry in the West, where the resource being mined is not only water, but local tolerance for risk, opacity, and boom-bust development... what would it take for communities to evaluate these projects beyond acre-feet, maybe in terms of accountability, public benefit, and long-term water resilience?
This is such a good question and I don't have a full answer. Am I showing my journalism bias here if I answer, in part, that transparency is an important starting point? Making sure companies are required to disclose the full scope and tradeoffs of their projects, allowing communities to actually engage in the process, rather than coming in after a decision has more or less been made by economic development authorities. I'm hoping to dig into this report in more depth, but you might find it interesting. Talks a lot about local capacity building. https://www.law.berkeley.edu/research/clee/research/wheeler/water-innovation/data-center-water-use/