I understand water is a very sensitive issue in the west. Not in Missouri.
I’ll challenge you to name the last time the Meramec River in Missouri was dry. Not in my lifetime.
Power plants that use lots of water are often locate on rivers. Data centers can do that too.
Most plants that use water clean it up before they put it into their equipment. Yes, they remove lots of junk from the water. Yes, when evaporated you get lots of stuff—mostly hard water ions—in what is left.
Most plants that return water to the river are required to return it cleaner than they got it.
My bad. When I looked at it I thought both were tan. Still, averaging across a state with such a wide range of climates isn’t really helpful, IMO. KS probably has less variability because there aren’t any mountains (or deserts). Don’t know for a fact, but I would suspect it.
The West has largely relied on a few major rivers (chiefly, the Colorado). Most of that is from snowmelt in the Rockies. If they are getting less snow, there is less run-off, and you have a problem. Especially when desert cities like L.A. and Phoenix grow beyond reason (Phoenix metro is about 9M people…in the middle of the Great Sonoran Desert; and L.A. is actually a desert city that has been transformed (and now boasts north of 18M people)).
Given the number (and size) of the businesses (and economies) in the region, a water disruption would be very bad. I don’t even want to guess at the economic impact. CA is over $4T per annum, and Arizona is over $500B per annum. (GDP)
The city of Hayes (central/north part of the state) is having some serious water issues. I don’t remember the details. Involves rights for pumping from the aquifer I believe.
I’m trying to think of how the water gets dirty when used for cooling data centers??? Don’t they just pump the [cool] water through pipes in the area where the heat is being removed and then return the [warmed] water to the aquifer where it can cool down again to be continuously reused. And the portion that evaporates is “clean” by definition I think. I’m really asking, I didn’t look anything up yet.
It depends. Many data centers in dry climates use evaporative cooling. Others use closed loop water systems. Yet others use closed loop coolant systems. The environmental impact generally doesn’t drive which system is used, cost does.
Data centers can inadvertently pollute water through chemical runoff from evaporative cooling systems, including biocides, corrosion inhibitors, and heavy metals that accumulate at scale when facilities discharge up to 5 million gallons daily.
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Chemicals enter evaporative cooling systems because the systems themselves contain them (we’ll discuss the specific types shortly). As water – whether in vapor or liquid form – passes through the system, it can carry these chemicals along with it.
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The most common pollutant in data center water systems is biocide – chemicals designed to prevent the growth of bacteria, mold, and algae. Evaporative cooling systems create warm, moist environments that are ideal for the organic buildup. To combat this, data center operators often use biocides such as chlorine dioxide or bromine to maintain system cleanliness and efficiency.
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Another category involves chemicals that prevent corrosion within cooling systems. These inhibitors, such as various types of phosphates, are crucial for maintaining the integrity of the system’s components and ensuring its long-term functionality.
Cadillac Desert is a book that provides the background to the mess we are in now. Excellent read. PBS made a documentary based on the book and it is available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR2BSGQt2DU
Yes, we are adept at coming up with short term fixes, but that just seems to allow us to ignore long term consequences, pushing problems further out, risking long term viability. Every time I drive through Phoenix and Tucson I am impressed by the rapid growth and wonder how in the hell there will be enough water to sustain it. But we are good at short term fixes.
Cooling water is treated with chemicals to prevent corrosion and the fouling of the pipes and coolers with scale that precipitates from the water.
And biocides because the cooling systems are wonderful for growing bacteria that produce slime.
And cleaning chemicals. I made sure to urge the maintenance engineers to thoroughly clean every cooling system once a year. The copper tubes in the chillers are expensive.
The water is not “clean” after those additions.
Wendy (ex-sales rep for industrial water treatment chemicals)
Though, we could require them to treat the water before discharging it. They’ll scream, because of the added expense, but we really probably should do it.
Also, there will be “thermal pollution”. The water leaves much hotter than it entered, which will affect the areas immediately around the discharge piping. If they actually put it back in the aquifer, it could affect what organ!sm (why does that word raise a TMF flag? It’s a perfectly good word) would grow there. If they discharge to the environment, it would affect organ!sms and wildlife in the vicinity similarly.
A complicated mix of mostly excellent reporting with some shrill distortions of truth that undermined its credibility in crucial places.
Clean non-saline water is the most valuable stuff on earth, and we waste it like idiots who have inherited millions but not the knowledge that produced it.
It has been a long time since I read it, I agree with its main points, but there were some sections that were wrong. If I remember correctly it mistates the history of the economy of the Owens River Valley and understates the strong water viability of most of the cities founded pre-1900, and even pre-1950.
I completely agree with his detestation of the ill-planned for people max-planned for big profits of a group of strongly connected land owners urban developments of the 20th Century.
I grew up there as it was all happening, and used to bicycle on the San Diego Freeway while it was still under construction. Mom and Dad lived in Pasadena from 1944 - 1949 while he studied and worked on the theory and math necessary for the invention of reliable and accurate guidance systems for ballistic missiles, both intermediate and intercontinental. It was a place where the future was being invented, and that is highly attractive.
