Data Centers' Thirst for Our Water
The Insider Newsletter The Dalles Mayor Richard Mays looks at the Columbia River from his hilltop home in The Dalles, Oregon. | Photo courtesy of AP Photo/Andrew Selsky, Files Data Centers' Thirst for Our Water Data centers siphon tremendous amounts of water to cool off constantly running servers. In the Dalles, a small town on the banks of the Columbia River in Oregon, recent reports indicate that Google's hub of data centers accounts for 40 percent of the city's total water usage. Now, a new bill threatens to remove federal public land protections, and local advocates fear that cold water streams in Mt. Hood National Forest might be diverted to feed more data centers. If passed, water would be siphoned from an already fragile watershed that feeds into the Columbia River, threatening Indigenous treaty rights and the health of endangered salmon. Read about the growing fight over data centers and efforts to protect our most important shared resource. Read More Take Actio...