[culi]

> it's an open conversation around how careful we need to be with the water usage

It's only an "open conversation" because of the complete lack of transparency electricity companies and data center companies are required to give us. Communities are expected to make these decisions without any of the data to know what they're signing up for.

What irks me the most is how prevalent the industry line about water usage "not being a big deal" is on HN. Closed loop systems are probably less than 10% of data centers! Not to mention the fact that even in closed loop systems, you still have to regularly "bleed the lines". That water builds up with the anti-freeze, anti-corrosives, and anti-fungals additives as well as other stuff they pick up along the way including PFAS. Closed loop systems are far from a perfect alternative to the open loop systems that are prevalent. They can use as much as 40% more electricity, have much higher upfront costs, and then you have to have a solution for the toxic sludge problem.