41–50 of 87 posts
I only live like 3miles from the data center but am on a different water source. Still, with increasing drought conditions it might contribute to increased costs and availability in the future. I already pay $75/m for water...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It evaporates, the heat is used to evaporate the water.
Do they heat it that much to evaporate a lot of it? I've read about one water cooled DC, don't remember which one exactly. But I do remember they were drawing water at around 15C and returning back to the river at 20C.
Seems like a waste of chlorine & flouride. Why Dalles & not say Hood River 24 mi downriver?
Local resident here: there's a hydroelectric facility that provides a lot of the power for the data centers in The Dalles. More generally, land is more plentiful and cheaper there than in Hood River.
This article makes several disingenuous statements to paint an entirely false, emotion provoking narrative. First: Google is not "consuming" water any more than a water wheel or dam turbine "consumes" water as it passes by in a river. This is an objectively absurd framing. Second: Even if the water were consumed, which it isn't, 25% of a town of 16k is not a significant amount of consumption. Third: This article talk…
Where's he water that passes through the facility go? Does it go into the fresh water reservoir for the city, or the sewer, or into a river? If it isn't going directly to the city's residents in some fashion without needing to be treated, I think it's pretty reasonable to say "consumed". To say it more succinctly: the water you flush down the toilet in your house is, in fact, "consumed".
This article makes several disingenuous statements to paint an entirely false, emotion provoking narrative. First: Google is not "consuming" water any more than a water wheel or dam turbine "consumes" water as it passes by in a river. This is an objectively absurd framing. Second: Even if the water were consumed, which it isn't, 25% of a town of 16k is not a significant amount of consumption. Third: This article talk…
Where's he water that passes through the facility go? Does it go into the fresh water reservoir for the city, or the sewer, or into a river? If it isn't going directly to the city's residents in some fashion without needing to be treated, I think it's pretty reasonable to say "consumed". To say it more succinctly: the water you flush down the toilet in your house is, in fact, "consumed".
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Every drop that evaporates from the reservoir, that would not have from the naked river, is consumed. Every drop pumped out of the reservoir to irrigate desert farms, that could not have been without the dam, is consumed.
And if more evaporates from the resevoir, less outflows to the ocean directly.
The Sacramento River feeds the Sacramento delta, a thriving ecosystem. None of the water that reaches the sea was wasted.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Where's he water that passes through the facility go? Does it go into the fresh water reservoir for the city, or the sewer, or into a river? If it isn't going directly to the city's residents in some fashion without needing to be treated, I think it's pretty reasonable to say "consumed". To say it more succinctly: the water you flush down the toilet in your house is, in fact, "consumed".
It goes back into the river, of course.
https://thatoregonlife.com/2021/09/google-to-expand-data-cen...
Note the picture: The water vapor mist from Data Center cooling towers at night
https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/locations/the-dalle...
> Water vapor rises above the cooling towers in The Dalles data center in Oregon. These plumes of water vapor create a quiet mist at dusk.
That is water that isn't being released back to the river, or reservoir, or aquifer (from which it came).
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edit another source, though a bit old: https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2008/10/01/goog...
> Data center cooling is usually the area where the greatest savings can be realized. That's true for Google, which describes its use of evaporative cooling techniques, and provides a diagram of the workings of one of the cooling towers at its data center in The Dalles, Oregon.
Still, the evaporative cooling towers are the things that are there and take water from the ground and turn it into steam, released into the air.
More context for the curious: https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2021/11/why-does-g...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And if more evaporates from the resevoir, less outflows to the ocean directly.
None of the Colorado River reaches the sea. In the past, it fed a delta of two million acres of prime wetland, key habitat for migrating birds. Today that is all desert. The Sacramento River feeds the Sacramento delta, a thriving ecosystem. None of the water that reaches the sea was wasted.
The water is siphoned off elsewhere for irrigation.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It goes back into the river, of course.
It uses evaporative cooling. https://thatoregonlife.com/2021/09/google-to-expand-data-cen... Note the picture: The water vapor mist from Data Center cooling towers at night https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/locations/the-dalle... > Water vapor rises above the cooling towers in The Dalles data center in Oregon. These plumes of water vapor create a quiet mist at dusk. That is water that isn't being released back…
I saw elsewhere that google "consumes" around 4x as much water for hydroelectric power generation as they use for cooling. Hydroelectric will return essentially all the water back to the source.