Sydney Water is preparing for data centres to consume 25% of Sydney’s water by 2035.
No data centre operating in Australia is required to disclose how much water it consumes, nor is there a law currently requiring any of them to recycle it. And even if they do, the cooling process generates toxins hard to get rid of.
The water that passes through data centre cooling systems does not come out the same as it went in. Biocides, heavy metals, corrosion inhibitors and PFAS — forever chemicals that do not break down in the environment — accumulate in cooling water and are discharged into municipal water systems. Once in the supply, those chemicals cannot be removed by standard treatment.
This is already an issue in the US.
The peak industry body, Data Centre Australia, confirmed this year that questions about chemical waste from its members’ facilities were the first it had received on the subject. When those facilities eventually decommission their hardware, the environmental and financial cost of safe disposal will fall somewhere — on industry, on government, or on the public.
No Australian government has said which.
https://michaelwest.com.au/waste-tsunami-water-and-the-hidden-cost-of-ai-data-centres/
You don’t think it’s fair enough for an industry that didn’t have water rules to fight back when rules start being written that specifically target them?
I think data centres use too much water and should be forced into building closed loop systems for example but this is the perfect time to fight back against all poor water usage everywhere.
Regulations are never written beforehand. They are always in response to somebody taking advantage of the situation.