The water sediment thing had nothing to do with the building being a data center I think? Any form of construction would interfere with people drinking well water next to it

Isn't that enough to rethink the construction - it takes a while to build a data center, and I would not be happy that I have to suffer with shitty water because a data center is being built for years.

What I mean is that it’s got nothing to do with data centers. Saying “data centers pollute water” is misleading, in these situations

1) we’re talking about people pulling unfiltered untreated well water

2) any building would have had exactly the same effect.

They’re buying up undeveloped land that would not have been developed for any other reason. If the only developer is a problem, then it doesn’t matter if all developers are a problem.

What? How is a data center that runs insane amounts of water through it every single day the same as a warehouse with a tap and bathroom?

And sure, a rocket launch pad would also cause issues, but now it’s a data center that is doing it, let’s not argue fictional realities.

It’s not: the datacenter likely consumes less.

Datacenters (1) use non-potable water during normal operation and (2) return most of the water they use to the water system, instead of consuming it (as opposed to, say, a golf course).

I have yet to read anyone more compelling than Andy Masley on this: https://blog.andymasley.com/p/empire-of-ai-is-wildly-mislead...

(This isn’t a topic I know much about personally, so am open to being persuaded otherwise!)

I didn’t get far until the semantics fall apart, you don’t care if it’s consumption or not when you don’t have water in your tap. And it’s all based on theory, these plants are using systems far under dimensioned for the task, which is never a good thing. The problem with proponents for these behemoths is that they are all about theory and don’t live anywhere near the life they say is so great.

https://youtu.be/2Eltf06-NiQ

… do you know what the difference between potable and non-potable water is?

AOC is fantastic, but her name doesn’t automatically lend credibility to an argument, certainly not one backed by actual primary sources.

Construction (or at least of the type we're talking here, not fracking and tunneling and other things that affect the subsurface water table) interferes with surface water, not ground water.

I am not talking about sediment, or anything construction-related.

This is normal operations being done irresponsibly:

1.) https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/08/meta-datacen...

2.) https://www.cbsnews.com/detroit/news/saline-township-residen...

…and you get to do that because you pay for clean water and sewage treatment. But that doesn’t mean some company can use the public sewers to dispose of as much bacteria-contaminated water as they like without paying for that externality.

or flush it off into the woods, because they got a local politician to sign off.

With lithium or whatever, in your waste…

0.) It shouldn’t be considered a national panic to ask States and communities to stop permitting this behavior.

1.) All bacteria is far from equal.

2.) Some of this wastewater is not problematic because of bacteria, but metals and other things - and some is being pumped into streams, not water treatment loops.