[markdown]

> Data centers just use some water for water cooling of cpus, there isn't anything to pollute.

I wonder why they're using up and dumping all the water then. If the water was clean they'd consume none... it'd just flow through their CPU's, into tanks, and back into municipal water supply.

[perching_aix]

Isn't the water used for evaporative cooling? Not much to return then I'd assume.

Edit:

Upon looking into it, looks like a portion of it (tens of percents) becomes a concentrated fluid called "blowdown", filled with minerals from the water source, and various treatment additives used for ensuring that the thing keeps flowing and doesn't become a growth media. This does need to be flushed out periodically, and is apparently supposed to be directed towards a water reclamation plant (e.g. via the sewage system).

I don't necessarily find it a reasonable suggestion that it should be cleaned in place, although it does look like a number of DCs actually do, but obviously I do agree it should not just be dumped yolo.