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Google gets OK to siphon water for South Carolina plant

thestate.com

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Re: Google gets OK to siphon water for South Carolina plant

#4
>...granted Google permission Wednesday to pump 549 million gallons of water out of the ground each year to cool servers at its sprawling plant in Berkeley County.

>DHEC’s decision is the latest development in a bitter fight over whether the company should get state approval to withdraw from a major groundwater source that, critics say, is dwindling and in jeopardy of being further depleted.

Just put the warmed water back? It's not like it's being contaminated or anything.

Re: Google gets OK to siphon water for South Carolina plant

#7
post #4

>...granted Google permission Wednesday to pump 549 million gallons of water out of the ground each year to cool servers at its sprawling plant in Berkeley County. >DHEC’s decision is the latest development in a bitter fight over whether the company should get state approval to withdraw from a major groundwater source that, critics say, is dwindling and in jeopardy of being further depleted. Just put the warmed water…

I'd expect warmed groundwater will have unintended consequences for the biodiversity there; lots of essential bacteria and other small organisms would suffer.

And that is assuming they keep the groundwater as-is, without adding any additives, neutralizing the water, etc.

Re: Google gets OK to siphon water for South Carolina plant

#8
Wow using ground water to cool down computers? Is there no other water supply available?

Ofc a Google rep says how they are environmentally committed. Obv they'd never say if they didn't give a shit. What a useless comment.

Clean unpolluted ground water is probably the most precious resource there is.

Re: Google gets OK to siphon water for South Carolina plant

#9
post #4

>...granted Google permission Wednesday to pump 549 million gallons of water out of the ground each year to cool servers at its sprawling plant in Berkeley County. >DHEC’s decision is the latest development in a bitter fight over whether the company should get state approval to withdraw from a major groundwater source that, critics say, is dwindling and in jeopardy of being further depleted. Just put the warmed water…

I have zero qualifications on that, but warming up the ground water sounds like a really good way to encourage anything living down there to rapidly multiply. And that is even if google's server cooling circulation was a sterile environment, which I highly doubt.

Re: Google gets OK to siphon water for South Carolina plant

#10
post #4

>...granted Google permission Wednesday to pump 549 million gallons of water out of the ground each year to cool servers at its sprawling plant in Berkeley County. >DHEC’s decision is the latest development in a bitter fight over whether the company should get state approval to withdraw from a major groundwater source that, critics say, is dwindling and in jeopardy of being further depleted. Just put the warmed water…

This water will be used in evaporative coolers. There won't be warmed water to return.

The water gets recycled 50-100 times, and each time a small percentage evaporates into a cloud.

The cloud really does make clouds.

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