In his June 16 op-ed “Facts matter..” Russ Walker says that “modern data centers recycle water, continuously recirculating the same water through closed-loop systems with minimal input.”
Most data centers use evaporation for cooling and they are not closed-loop. Water comes in at one end and is evaporated into the atmosphere at the other end and is thus lost to the system.
Walker’s claim is based on the fact that, just like the swamp cooler on my roof, water not immediately evaporated is collected and sent through the system again. However, within a limited number of cycles at least 80% of the water will have been evaporated and must be replaced.
Facts do matter, and fact is when water used in the generation of the large amounts of electricity data centers require is added to that lost to evaporation, these centers do use amounts of water equivalent to a small city.
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Roger Voelker
Southeast side
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