AI data center project secretly sucked 29 million gallons of water over 15 months before detected by residents complaining about low water pressure — officials refuse to fine

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/georgia-data-center-used-29-million-gallons-of-water

146 points · 7 comments · view on lemmy.world

7 Comments

aislopmukbang@sh.itjust.works · 32 pts · 94d (3 replies)
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i_am_not_a_robot@discuss.tchncs.de · 12 pts · 94d

Steal 100 gallons of water, get cut off. Steal 29 million gallons, get away with it.

Manjushri@piefed.social · 4 pts · 94d

Someone needs to look into this person's finances. It sure seems like she has a vested interest in letting these criminals get away with this. Almost like she was being paid to do so.

deliriousdreams@fedia.io · 2 pts · 94d

This is a "fuck the constituency, the data center is more lucrative" take that I expect these days from public officials.

Treczoks@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 94d (1 reply)

To me, the very idea that someone could steal water in such amounts is mindboogling.

Here, we have metering for each connection, and, on top of this, metering at key nodes all over the grid. Not to catch someone watering their lawn unmetered, but to watch for leaks. Water is considered important, so the utilities have strict monitoring requirements. If the measurements don't add up in a segment, the utilities immediately start to investigate, as any leak that lets water out could also let dirt in - an absolute no-go here.

They would have caught the culprits after the first few cubic meters.

Fredselfish@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 94d

I worked in the industry they knew. The water department knew that much water was being used and by whom.

Hoticeberg@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 94d

Burn. It. Down.

JackDark@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 94d

To put this in perspective, an Olympic sized swimming pool is 804,836 gallons (assuming 8ft depth). 29 million gallons is 36 Olympic sized swimming pools.