Google's controversial groundwater withdrawal sparks question

Water has an exceptionally high heat capacity, I get it. But using drinking water to cool our servers (in the interest of seeing the very best ads) seems like an exceptionally short-sighted choice for us to make.<p>If there is a less worthwhile thing for us to be doing with potable water, I can&#x27;t think of it.

It is not just South Carolina. My home state of Michigan probably has more fresh water than just about any other state but it still has become a political issue and not just in Flint.<p>Giant Nestle is pumping tens of millions of gallons in a rural Northern Michigan county in exchange for a $200 yearly permit. Even though the promised jobs never materialized they want to pump even more water threatening the aquifer. The community and the state say no but Nestle is not backing down.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.freep.com&#x2F;story&#x2F;news&#x2F;local&#x2F;michigan&#x2F;2017&#x2F;04&#x2F;19&#x2F;nestle-groundwater-michigan-great-lakes&#x2F;100663218&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.freep.com&#x2F;story&#x2F;news&#x2F;local&#x2F;michigan&#x2F;2017&#x2F;04&#x2F;19&#x2F;ne...</a>

Are there any &quot;municipal heating&quot; systems in the U.S.?<p>It&#x27;s popular in NL, the idea is basically hot (~70 degrees celcius) water being pumped from industrial areas (where it was used for cooling), to residential areas for cheap heating.

Why would anyone need to use potable water as a coolant, and why is potable water completely ruined and transformed into grey water by its use as a coolant?

Google is continually touted as the industry leader in efficient DC design, yet they do wasteful operations like this. I just don&#x27;t get it.<p>On the other hand, Yahoo is constantly shat on (sometimes validly), yet they solved this years ago. Their Lockport, NY data center does not need air conditioning because of its design and the cool local weather. It uses 50 percent less electricity and 99 percent less water compared with traditional data centers.

I think the biggest question here is how can a public municipality sign an NDA written by a private corporation?

&quot;The price of tap water has risen faster than gold or real estate . . .&quot; What an odd pair of benchmarks. We don&#x27;t expect the prices of either of those items to rise particularly fast. What was the actual rate of increase in the price of tap water? According to the Case-Schiller index, national housing prices have roughly doubled in the last twenty years (I don&#x27;t know if the index accounts for inflation). That doesn&#x27;t seem like an extraordinary rate of increase for the price of tap water.

How exactly is the amount of a public resource consumed by a private company a &quot;trade secret&quot;?<p>What utter nonsense. Someone in SC should file a FOIA request on principle.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.scstatehouse.gov&#x2F;code&#x2F;t30c004.php" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.scstatehouse.gov&#x2F;code&#x2F;t30c004.php</a>

Pardon my naivety but I am curious why in use cases like this the same water can&#x27;t be reused? My car uses the same coolant over and over. While that is an apples to oranges comparison couldn&#x27;t the water be allowed to naturally cool after use in a covered retention pond and then be recycled into the cooling system? Is the water from the aquifer particularly cold to begin with?

What happens to the water after it has been used to cool these servers? It&#x27;s not as if it&#x27;s used up, right?

Going to go ahead and recommend Paolo Bacigalupi&#x27;s <i>The Water Knife</i>. And <i>The Windup Girl</i> is even better, but not on topic.

Water is great for cooling, but who the hell dumps it afterwards?! I don&#x27;t think they quite understood what &quot;water cooling&quot; is..