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Why and how would they contaminate the water supply though? Sounds like a municipality problem, a water consumer shouldn't be feeding back into the system, or i

Why and how would they contaminate the water supply though? Sounds like a municipality problem, a water consumer shouldn't be feeding back into the system, or is it being caused by poorly executed construction practices? Maybe when they first pipe in or something is being left open during construction, this seems like it shouldn't happen if things are being done properly, water supply systems are not a new technology so who is dropping the ball?

estearum 22d ago
Yeah, all these stupid little municipalities have to do is shit they've literally never had to do before while getting sued out of their socks by literal trillion dollar companies. That's all it takes for them to do their part in generating gargantuan amounts of value for people who live 1,000 miles away and their uberwealthy hardly-human CEOs and investors.
- luxuryballs 22d ago
  what is it that they have to do? I'm still confused as to what is causing the water to change
  - estearum 21d ago
    Have you considered Googling? Or is this the type of curiosity that one just offloads to others? https://fieldreport.caes.uga.edu/publications/TP121/how-data-centers-impact-surface-and-ground-waters/ https://fieldreport.caes.uga.edu/publications/TP121/how-data...
    - luxuryballs 20d ago
      it's social media, and a human who strongly signals they know something is usually much more reliable than a search engine for knowing the real upshot, 9 times out of 10 the person who already has a strong opinion has keyed in on the detail that even if I found a search result might not be so easy to decipher, or you could have some professional experience, anyways it was worth a shot, thanks for sharing
blooalien 22d ago
> Why and how would they contaminate the water supply though? One recent-ish example: ^[1] > ... or is it being caused by poorly executed construction practices? I believe their contractor was responsible for this one IIRC? [1]: https://www.forbes.com/sites/victoriaforster/2026/07/09/meta-ai-data-center-linked-to-rare-bacteria-in-citys-water-system/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/victoriaforster/2026/07/09/meta...
anon84873628 22d ago
The construction itself absolutely alters local watersheds: 1. Replacing forests and fields with concrete buildings prevents rainwater from filtering into the soil, which stops local aquifers from recharging. 2. During storms the rain runs off impervious surfaces and can cause downstream flooding. 3. Heavy land grading washes loose sediment into nearby waterways, destroying aquatic habitats and turning private drinking wells muddy. (That especially gets local homeowners angry and gets lots of video views). And then you have the ongoing operation of open cooling systems: 4. Evaporative cooling systems discharge concentrated mineral brine that spikes the salinity of freshwater ecosystems. 5. Cooling water is treated with toxic biocides and anti-scalants that can contaminate local water basins. It can also contain leached copper, zinc, and PFAS. 6. Discharging warm wastewater depletes oxygen in streams and alters the overall ecology. Of course all of these issues could be mitigated to a reasonable degree with proper care and effort: >this seems like it shouldn't happen if things are being done properly Do you want to bet your whole town on things being done properly right now?
- gruez 22d ago
  >The construction itself absolutely alters local watersheds: The first 3 apply to all construction. It's just being selectively applied because people hate datacenters.
- lordgilman 22d ago
  All of this applies to all construction of all types. There are already plenty of environmental regulations around buildings and their construction. Maybe these aren't being enforced, maybe the laws need to be stricter. I'm not an expert but it sounds plausible. But if that's the case, we have to fix those problems otherwise you're just playing whack-a-mole with development. When you specifically focus on datacenters and stopping datacenters it gives away that environmentalism is just a fig leaf for your actual goals.
  - anon84873628 22d ago
    It seems like many of these town council debates are citizens asking for the laws to be enforced.
lordgilman 22d ago
My understanding is that they don't but there's a measurable amount of the population that thinks they can.
autoexec 22d ago
In the case of one amazon data center the town already had nitrates in their water due to agricultural runoff, but at levels that weren't a problem. Amazon took in hundreds of millions of gallons of that water for cooling, which evaporated away some of the water, but left the nitrates. Then amazon dumped the concentrated nitrate 'waste water' at such high volumes that it was pushed so deep into ground that it reached the aquifer contaminating the source for some 45k people. Soon people's taps were delivering water contaminated at 10x the legal limit. People got sick. A bunch of parents lost their babies. Amazon was forced to settle for 20 million which will pay for digging to find uncontaminated water sources deeper in the ground. They'll also pay for water treatments to help remove the excess nitrates. Data centers don't have to bring in new toxins and pollutants. They can also make existing problems much much worse.
- sidewndr46 22d ago
  This doesn't even make any sense. "deeper in the ground" is mostly wishful thinking. Why wouldn't the contamination spread? How can anyone be sure there is even potable water deeper?
  - autoexec 22d ago
    With regular rainfall/usage the nitrates don't get far enough down to reach the aquifer. The nitrates get filtered naturally and remain in upper layers of the soil. Amazon concentrated the contamination and drove it far enough down that it reached and contaminated the aquifer, but below that the father down you dig and pull up water the less contaminated it will be. Part of the settlement is a fund for digging new private wells deep enough that the water contamination is under legal limits. I guess if there's no clean water below the contamination they'll have to stop using wells entirely and depend on treated water from the contaminated source.

estearum 22d ago

Yeah, all these stupid little municipalities have to do is shit they've literally never had to do before while getting sued out of their socks by literal trillion dollar companies. That's all it takes for them to do their part in generating gargantuan amounts of value for people who live 1,000 miles away and their uberwealthy hardly-human CEOs and investors.

luxuryballs 22d ago
what is it that they have to do? I'm still confused as to what is causing the water to change
- estearum 21d ago
  Have you considered Googling? Or is this the type of curiosity that one just offloads to others? https://fieldreport.caes.uga.edu/publications/TP121/how-data-centers-impact-surface-and-ground-waters/ https://fieldreport.caes.uga.edu/publications/TP121/how-data...
  - luxuryballs 20d ago
    it's social media, and a human who strongly signals they know something is usually much more reliable than a search engine for knowing the real upshot, 9 times out of 10 the person who already has a strong opinion has keyed in on the detail that even if I found a search result might not be so easy to decipher, or you could have some professional experience, anyways it was worth a shot, thanks for sharing

blooalien 22d ago

> Why and how would they contaminate the water supply though? One recent-ish example: ^[1] > ... or is it being caused by poorly executed construction practices? I believe their contractor was responsible for this one IIRC? [1]: https://www.forbes.com/sites/victoriaforster/2026/07/09/meta-ai-data-center-linked-to-rare-bacteria-in-citys-water-system/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/victoriaforster/2026/07/09/meta...

anon84873628 22d ago

The construction itself absolutely alters local watersheds: 1. Replacing forests and fields with concrete buildings prevents rainwater from filtering into the soil, which stops local aquifers from recharging. 2. During storms the rain runs off impervious surfaces and can cause downstream flooding. 3. Heavy land grading washes loose sediment into nearby waterways, destroying aquatic habitats and turning private drinking wells muddy. (That especially gets local homeowners angry and gets lots of video views). And then you have the ongoing operation of open cooling systems: 4. Evaporative cooling systems discharge concentrated mineral brine that spikes the salinity of freshwater ecosystems. 5. Cooling water is treated with toxic biocides and anti-scalants that can contaminate local water basins. It can also contain leached copper, zinc, and PFAS. 6. Discharging warm wastewater depletes oxygen in streams and alters the overall ecology. Of course all of these issues could be mitigated to a reasonable degree with proper care and effort: >this seems like it shouldn't happen if things are being done properly Do you want to bet your whole town on things being done properly right now?

gruez 22d ago
>The construction itself absolutely alters local watersheds: The first 3 apply to all construction. It's just being selectively applied because people hate datacenters.
lordgilman 22d ago
All of this applies to all construction of all types. There are already plenty of environmental regulations around buildings and their construction. Maybe these aren't being enforced, maybe the laws need to be stricter. I'm not an expert but it sounds plausible. But if that's the case, we have to fix those problems otherwise you're just playing whack-a-mole with development. When you specifically focus on datacenters and stopping datacenters it gives away that environmentalism is just a fig leaf for your actual goals.
- anon84873628 22d ago
  It seems like many of these town council debates are citizens asking for the laws to be enforced.

lordgilman 22d ago

My understanding is that they don't but there's a measurable amount of the population that thinks they can.

autoexec 22d ago

In the case of one amazon data center the town already had nitrates in their water due to agricultural runoff, but at levels that weren't a problem. Amazon took in hundreds of millions of gallons of that water for cooling, which evaporated away some of the water, but left the nitrates. Then amazon dumped the concentrated nitrate 'waste water' at such high volumes that it was pushed so deep into ground that it reached the aquifer contaminating the source for some 45k people. Soon people's taps were delivering water contaminated at 10x the legal limit. People got sick. A bunch of parents lost their babies. Amazon was forced to settle for 20 million which will pay for digging to find uncontaminated water sources deeper in the ground. They'll also pay for water treatments to help remove the excess nitrates. Data centers don't have to bring in new toxins and pollutants. They can also make existing problems much much worse.

sidewndr46 22d ago
This doesn't even make any sense. "deeper in the ground" is mostly wishful thinking. Why wouldn't the contamination spread? How can anyone be sure there is even potable water deeper?
- autoexec 22d ago
  With regular rainfall/usage the nitrates don't get far enough down to reach the aquifer. The nitrates get filtered naturally and remain in upper layers of the soil. Amazon concentrated the contamination and drove it far enough down that it reached and contaminated the aquifer, but below that the father down you dig and pull up water the less contaminated it will be. Part of the settlement is a fund for digging new private wells deep enough that the water contamination is under legal limits. I guess if there's no clean water below the contamination they'll have to stop using wells entirely and depend on treated water from the contaminated source.