Hi Watchers!
The communities where data centers are built can experience difficulties in zoning, power supply quality, water availability, and noise.
A difficult fact of siting data centers is that nearby communities endure high water consumption, impacts of power supply, exposure to noise from cooling systems, and the eyesore of the facility. Community members often object to data center construction while local governments are frequently welcoming.
Data center siting decisions incorporate low land cost, which makes for large infrastructure being built in hot, dry locations with fresh water supply problems. In the American Southwest there are many data centers that use the plentiful solar energy to reduce GHG emissions while consuming unsustainable amounts of scarce drinking water. Yet their water sourcing, treating, transporting and disposal generates GHG emissions, and increases the campus’ carbon footprint.
In recent years, citizens opposed data center construction in Valencia County, New Mexico, US; Fairfax County, Virginia US; Canelones Dept., Uruguay; Zeevolde, Netherlands; and Cerrillos, Chile (where a court intervened on behalf of the aquifer).
In Los Lunas, Meta’s data center campus was given the ok to expand, and citizens protested increased water use. The Albuquerque Journal reported that the Village of Los Lunas city attorney Jill Sweeney said the existing agreement with Meta gave the company the rights to 1.5 million gallons per day. But Meta has put in a water reuse program that put average day demand at 155,000 gallons. It uses 80% less water than the average data center, according to Sweeney. She also said that the facility returns more water to the Rio Grande watershed than it consumes. Water returned to the watershed is not the same as water available to Los Lunas for drinking. The facility currently consumes 5% of the town’s water use.
The Journal’s coverage included:
“…50 Valencia County farmers and residents protested the expansion plans with a vehicle caravan to the Los Lunas village administration offices. They carried signs saying, ‘Water for peoples’ needs, not corporate greed’ and ‘Stop sucking Valencia County dry’. … Deirdra Velazquez, a member of Valencia Water Watch, said the community organization has not confirmed Facebook’s claims about efficient water and energy use at its data center campus. ‘We’re not anti-Facebook,’ Velazquez said. ‘But the village has been doling out our water to different corporations.’ “
While these facilities are essential to our work and leisure lives, their resource demands–especially water consumption in dry regions–cause problems for the people who live nearby.