this post was submitted on 12 May 2026
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A Boring Dystopia

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[–] StupidBrotherInLaw@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I can't believe it: a ragebait screenshot with a mix of accurate and inaccurate details that make a bad situation look even worse. You all have frontal lobes, fellow apes. Use them to think critically, because there's a REASON memes like this want you to react emotionally and it's not in your best interests at all.

Tl;dr: the data center's usage is an issue, the local governments that facilitate and even encourage this behaviour are arguably even worse.

Truth: this shit hole data center used 30M gallons of water over the course of several months without being billed for it.

Rage Bait: they did it "illegally."

Truth: the data center fully intended and was allowed by local government to use that water in the course of its construction, but weren't billed because they didn't inform the local utility of one water hookup, and the utility cocked up by ignoring the usage for that hookup and failed to bill the center for the usage on its second hookup. The data center did exceed their usage limits, but that's not illegal: they simply pay penalties for the overage. The local utility waived these penalties because they're spineless.

Rage Bait: the exceedance caused a drop in water pressure.

Truth: the locals experiencing water pressure drops receive their water from groundwater while the data center uses surface water. Given groundwater recharge rates are painfully slow, the data center's usage did not cause the issue, though the pressure complaints led to the investigation that found the billing issues.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/05/data-center-used-30-million-gallons-of-water-without-initially-paying/

[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Rage Bait: they did it “illegally.”

but weren’t billed because they didn’t inform the local utility of one water hookup,

^^ That's the illegal part.

When a consumer hooks up a utility without informing the utility, that is "theft of services" and they are arrested.

https://www.4029tv.com/article/fort-smith-stealing-electricity/71286214

[–] shitwizard420@crazypeople.online 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

It has been clarified that the hookup wasn't without the knowledge of the utility, it was a failure of a new transmitter/verifying they were getting readings.

https://thecitizen.com/2026/05/11/behind-fayettes-qts-water-controversy-a-missed-meter-8000-workers-and-a-massive-construction-project/

I work in this realm and as soon as I read the quotes from the utility in the first batch of articles it was immediately clear that people who didn't have all the information were responding to inquiries. Your average utility employee, even in admin functions have zero media training. If I had a penny for every time I had to deal with the fallout of some ambitious comment that was taken out of context by the media or public, I'd have several pennies.

[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

“One water connection had been installed without the utility’s knowledge, and the other was not linked to the company’s account and therefore wasn’t being billed,” Politico reported. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/05/data-center-used-30-million-gallons-of-water-without-initially-paying/

Your linked article references the account that was known but not billed. Ars Technica references both that account and a second account that wasn't known and wasn't billed.

Even the first account was illegal in that water usage exceeded the original water limits agreement.

[–] AeonFelis@lemmy.world 70 points 2 days ago (2 children)

You are absolutely correct! I evaporated 30 million gallons of water that I was not legally allowed to use. Would you like me to come up with a plan to reduce water usage?

[–] Tiger666@lemmy.ca 12 points 2 days ago

I see what you did there; you won't get away with it ChatGPT.

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[–] kylie_kraft@lemmy.world 161 points 3 days ago (1 children)

corporations are people until crimes

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[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 34 points 2 days ago (5 children)

When you owe the bank $10,000 then you've got a problem.

When you owe the bank $100M then the bank's got a problem.

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whoops, accidentally used a bit too much water

[–] turtlesareneat@piefed.ca 114 points 3 days ago (7 children)

They did get billed ~$150k and paid for the water. Questions have not been answered about how the two connections were made without the water authority's knowledge. Seems difficult for a water main to just spontaneously form but maybe, I am not a pipe expert

[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 39 points 2 days ago (2 children)

My father worked for the city's utilities and he said they could see when an ad break was during a big TV event because everyone was going to the toilet at the same time. They usually knew when someone had a broken pipe in their cellar before the owner did because of the change in pressure at that location.

No way did the city not know where the water was going.

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[–] cybervseas@lemmy.world 58 points 3 days ago (2 children)
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[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 17 points 2 days ago (1 children)

they knew, they just dont want to openly admit it, and just use ignorance.

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[–] A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip 21 points 3 days ago (6 children)

~$150k and paid for the water

Can someone put that into perspective for me? I also have a hard time figuring how much 30 mil gallons actually is, like how many households for how long etc.

In any case, honest mistake sounds like a blatant lie, but hey, if POTUS does it why shouldn't they?

People should provide article links.

[–] spizzat2@lemmy.zip 26 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (8 children)

According to the EPA, the average American family of four uses about 400 gallons of water per day, or 12,000 gallons per month. This feels high to me, but we'll use that.

So, 30 million gallons is roughly the monthly usage of 2,500 four-person households, or the daily usage of 75,000 homes.

[–] abcd@feddit.org 16 points 2 days ago (3 children)

How does the average American Family manage that consumption?

German family of Four here: We use around 200liter a day. That’s roughly 50gallons. And we do wash ourselves and our clothes.

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[–] areakode@riskeratspizza.com 78 points 3 days ago (6 children)

If corporations are people, I want to see Texas execute one!

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[–] undergroundoverground@lemmy.world 27 points 2 days ago (4 children)

If you did it, it wouldn't be called "used illegally" it would be given its more traditional name of "stealing."

[–] isleepinahammock@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I'm going to try this when on trial for shoplifting. "No. I didn't steal it. You see, I never actually claimed ownership over the item I took. I would have given it back if they asked. I was just using it illegally!"

[–] Impractical_Island@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago

Yes your honor, I accidentally stole offbrand Walmart Benadryl over a hundred times, but due to how ridiculously cheap it is, it has only cost Walmart $99, which they actually gain a profit from a specific loophole they use to fuck the insurance company when it's a pharmacy-department loss, so technically I'm an unspoken Walmart contractor, and I demand benefits!

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[–] SethTaylor@lemmy.world 35 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Whoopsie, I accidetawy used 30 miwion gawons of water 🥹 Can I pliz have more if I pwomise to behave?

[–] sen@lemmy.zip 45 points 3 days ago (5 children)

I don't understand how data centers work. Like are they hiring people to stand there with a hose spraying racks or something? Why the fuck isn't this water being cycled?

[–] Canonical_Warlock@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

The AC systems use adiabatic gas coolers to minimize their footprint and electricity use. An adiabatic gas cooler works very similarly to a standard AC condenser except that there is an aditional piece of media on the air inlet side of the condenser coil which is kept perpetually wet. Basically as air is pulled through that media it evaporates water and cools that air basically down to the local dew point. This means colder air cooling the refrigerant condenser and thus a smaller more electricity efficient condenser.

Adiabatic coolers are especially popular on CO2 based refrigeration systems because of the low critical temp of CO2. Basically once the ambient temp gets above 75-80F a standard gas cooler can no longer liquify CO2 because it just goes supercritical instead which results in a more inefficient refrigeration process. Adiabatic coolers can largely mitigate that issue.

Of course this whole process could be done without using water but it would require more electricity. Basically someone did the math and found out that using water was cheaper than using more electricity so that's what they did. If we want data centers to stop using up all our water then the easiest fix is to just start charging them more for water.

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[–] paranoia@feddit.dk 19 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Having a closed loop is more expensive and energy intensive than running cold water through the heat exchanger.

[–] bort@sopuli.xyz 21 points 3 days ago (18 children)

most are closed loops, but some are not, i.e. cold water enters the datacenter, cools it, and then warm water leaves as waste water.

[–] frank@sopuli.xyz 15 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I was under the impression that the majority of them are not closed loop, any idea if there's data (no pun intended) anywhere? A quick search found me not much

[–] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 12 points 2 days ago (3 children)

It sounds like the waste head they create is getting harder and harder to cool with heat exchangers. So evaporative cooling is more efficient (power wise, not water usage wise) and they basically spray water on the cooling towers and it blows away in the wind as vapor.

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[–] AccoSpoot1@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago

Oopsy woopsie, AI Data Centre did a fucky wucky!

[–] GirthBrooksPLO@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago

Hope they kept that water for when the town burns that data center to the ground.

[–] Impractical_Island@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I used to "mistakenly" jack off in my window, just like I "accidentally" faked schizophrenia to get outta ROTC over the course of weeks, to include telling them my nonexistent sister got me pregnant, so I understand how this is possible.

[–] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Wasn't that a Melissa Etheridge song?

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[–] jeniferariza@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago

Funny how “honest mistake” only works when you’re rich enough to call it that. 30 million gallons is insane.

[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 24 points 2 days ago (2 children)

the mistake was getting caught

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[–] Mynameisallen@lemmy.zip 52 points 3 days ago (2 children)
[–] Sciaphobia@sh.itjust.works 20 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] sudo@lemmy.today 19 points 3 days ago

Or whatever

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[–] Eternal192@anarchist.nexus 25 points 2 days ago (6 children)

30 million gallons of water... you know with all that money that they are throwing at these data centers, they could solve world hunger or at least alleviate it in America, cure cancer, do something for the environment like reforestation especially in the desert parts of America and there are methods do it but no their unwavering focus is on something that makes that will make everything worse! More heat, faster resource depletion and destruction of environment around these data centers, like for who is this supposed to make life better? if you immediately thought of the terminator then yeah they'll be fine but us? we are so fucked if this keeps going.

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[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

30 million gallons is a mistake? No, that is blatant theft.

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 18 points 2 days ago (1 children)

And nothing will happen to them.

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[–] jamesrandysghost@lemmy.zip 6 points 2 days ago

We need the corporate death penalty so fucking badly...

[–] hamid@crazypeople.online 13 points 2 days ago (7 children)

CAFO "Factory Farms" in Minnesota used 2.3 billion gallons of water in 2017 and the number is going up

A typical Hog CAFO uses 5-10 million gallons per month, every month, all year long.

Dairy CAFOS use 10-20 million.

https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/11365/ https://www.elpc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/MI-CAFO-Report-Section-1-ELPC.pdf

In Georgia where this data center is they have hundreds of these farms which not only drain the local aquifers but create shit lagoons that pollute mostly black neighborhoods.

It is the height of hypocrisy to complain about datacenters and support animal agriculture which is unnecessary.

[–] Dogiedog64@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

You do know that multiple things can be bad at once, right? Like, yes, agriculture uses an ABHORRENT amount of water, but we at least get food out of it. What do we get out of datacenters? Chatbots that drive people insane and endless worthless slop. Both are bad.

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[–] Nautalax@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago (4 children)

~30 ft subsidence at a California farm from extraction of the groundwater. Agricultural use is immense and wipes out historic rivers, lakes, even seas and slowly replenished groundwater reserves and something like 40% of water used is wasted because the sun just evaporates it before it used by the crops.

Everyone (agricultural or data center) would be far less wasteful if they had to at least pay for the true value of the water they’re extracting in their local area, i.e. a lot more if it’s scarcer/from slowly replenishing sources. Though that would probably result in a lot of economic relocation to wetter areas as many business models in dry areas become unviable.

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[–] Uranus_Hz@lemmy.zip 22 points 3 days ago

Your AI surveillance overloads require massive data centers. They also need all of the water and all of the electricity to operate them. Just remember that this is for your own good.

You will own nothing, and you will be happy.

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