[colechristensen]

Data centers just shouldn't be using groundwater as a heat sink, regardless of where. That is an inappropriate usage of a natural resource.

The Ogallala aquifer is dropping considerably and geological processes happen which means even if you stop pulling water out of it it never restores. The most wasteful usages of it (growing corn where it has no business being grown where the majority of the water must come out of the acquirer, data centers that cool from the aquifer, etc) need to be curtailed.

Just because a small minority of people grow corn in the near desert doesn't mean that ALL corn grown is wasteful. Environmental enthusiasts lie with statistics they don't understand and as a result you don't get good environmental policy because too few people who actually understand the situation care to make reasonable choices.

Eating beef pastured on naturally watered land and unirrigated corn has a much different environmental impact than cattle grown on semi-arid-irrigated corn. If you just have "america beef fuk yah" vs. "save muh envroments!" it's just meaningless sectarian strife between fools.

[jeffbee]

This makes sense to me. I also don't think that data centers or anyone else should draw down fossil aquifers that never recharge[1]. But that wasn't what I asked. In data center country, the eastern Nebraska / western Iowa area that is thick with major data centers, the aquifers are alluvial. They are above the Ogallala, and they are tied to the Missouri River. They are a renewable resource and I see no problem with utilizing their water for human purposes.

1: A good book about this is "Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains"