This is Part 1 of 2 articles on water. This column is a continuation of last month’s column that focused on our biological and spiritual connection to water. This one focuses on our insatiable demand for digital information and the consequences of what drives that information: A.I. data centers.
Part 2:
I was about to wrap up this piece when the following headline appeared on the front page of the Spokesman Review. Avista Confirms Talks With Data Center: “Early opposition cites high cost, noise, water usage. Utility claims added expense won’t fall to ratepayers.”
As predicted, it was never a matter of if we will see data centers in our area, but rather when? They appear as an inevitable consequence of our times. And like similar big corporate endeavors, there are strong arguments being made for and against them. Some communities have pushed back hard enough to ban them from ever being built in or near them even while utility companies promote the positive and downplay the negative impacts of data centers.
We know that short-term gains often come with long-term consequences. We also know that often those with the most to gain, regardless of consequences, win! We know that there will be immediate winners and losers. Promises will be made and deals will be struck. Some of the biggest concerns with data centers are their long-term “unknown” impacts.
There are over 4,300 data centers in the US. They are large warehouse-size buildings with a footprint of thousands of acres. They hold computer servers that run 24-7, collecting, processing and storing data for the internet. They also produce A.I. models that teach computers to think like humans. Recently, I jokingly thanked Alexa for giving me the weather report and Alexa responded, “You’re welcome, have a great day”. Should we be concerned? Among the most serious consequences is the tremendous amount of heat they produce. Cooling them requires water and lots of it!
Data centers reportedly use between 300,000 to 5 million gallons of water per day depending on their size, region, and cooling methods. It’s reported that Google data centers withdraw over 2 million gallons per day with some facilities occasionally peaking up to 3 to 5 million. This level of constant drawdown is not naturally replaceable and its questionable if the water once used for cooling becomes toxic. The scientific guess on that is that water that passes through servers can become contaminated, posing risks to wells and water supplies. At a minimum, data centers strain already scarce water resources as they pop up like mushrooms across the country. Spokane is fertile ground for this non-biodegradable type of fungi. Take for example the nearby town of Quincy, WA.
Located 140 miles west of Spokane is the once small, rural, agriculturally based community of Quincy. Quincy sits in the fertile Columbia Basin just 10 miles North of I-90. It’s known for many things including its proximity to some of Washington’s most beautiful landscapes and recreational areas. Historically, Quincy is known for its crops of fruits like apples, cherries and pears, as well as row and field crops like potatoes, sweet corn, bell peppers and asparagus.
Over the past 10 years the town has become a tremendous A.I. infrastructure hub. According to sources the area now features over 27 operational data center buildings (spanning millions of square feet) operating to meet ever growing A.I. demands. Microsoft operates at least 21 of the sites in Quincy that includes the Columbia Data Center campus, H5 Data Centers, CyrusOne, Sabey Data Centers and the Vantage Data Center.
Certainly, this once agriculturally based town is experiencing a significant economic boost thanks to the massive data center campuses that now dot their landscape. Some Quincy residents argue that data centers have saved the town. Others fear the long-term impacts on people and their precious water supply. They are concerned that the impacts of data centers are likely to be the death of them and their town. Whether the benefits outweigh the cost of A.I. data centers are at the heart of the issue.
In 1970 cartoonist Walt Kelly in a Pogo comic strip quotes one of his characters, Pogo Possum, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Kelly’s message back then was that the destruction of our environment and society isn’t just caused by outside forces: we are ultimately responsible for our own destruction. No statement could be truer when it comes to our ability to wreak havoc on our natural world for the sake of convenience. We hastily fuel our need for convenience with poor environmental decision making. We can’t seem to help becoming our worst enemy.
It was not that long ago that the birth of electricity lead to the creation of power grids and massive power lines that still crisscross our landscape. Followed with the building of coal power plants and hydroelectric dams that were built to meet the demands of rural and urban growth. Data centers are the next infrastructure boom.
Artificial intelligence fills our daily lives. It links us together across town and across oceans. It drives our cars, pays our bills, can cook our food, vacuum our homes and protect them, mow our lawns, keep our medical and bank records, provide easy access to countless bits of helpful information and entertain us. Watches don’t just tell time anymore and cell phones are not just used for placing and receiving calls. They are communication and information storage units that among other things track our every move and automatically call 911 if we stumble. However odd it may seem, we can live without artificial intelligence, but we can’t live without water.
The proposed A.I. data centers in Spokane come with the same promises of transparency and the same environmental threats as data centers everywhere do. It’s a given that they will demand their lion’s share of water from the Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer. Once the deals are struck to build them, the amount of water they draw will be guaranteed to them. It is a given that data centers will tax our power grid, create toxins of various kinds and create a level of noise pollution.
Deals will be struck without us in the room and data centers will come to our area. At best we can hope to ultimately have some say as to where they are built, and some say on how to mediate their short and long-term impacts. Future generations will ultimately pay the price for corporate greed and our current thirst for data. Pogo Possum was right, “We have met the enemy and the enemy is us.”