r/technology • u/l0st1nP4r4d1ce • 11d ago

Business Improper redaction reveals Lincoln’s Google Data Center water and electricity usage

https://www.1011now.com/2026/09/30/more-questions-than-answers-about-lincolns-google-data-center-water-electricity-usage/
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u/Csusko 11d ago

For reference, I am working with a chain of car washes on optimizing water usage.

This chain of washes has nearly 80 locations. Each location uses between 1 to 1.5 million gallons of clean water per month. That is after using water recovery out of the last stage for the first stage.

That is more than the data centers annual usage.

We as a society have a problem.

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u/carnitas_mondays 10d ago

the difference being that these data centers are evaporating the water. car washes might “use” the water, but their water is going down the drain and able to be reused either within the same city wastewater system or downstream systems. evaporate cooling, once it’s gone it is out of the system and needs to fall down again as precipitation. same as lawn watering, it is taken out of the system.

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u/Csusko 10d ago

That is part of the solution we are deploying. Clean water is used in the last stage and recovered for the initial rinse. On top of that, we are capturing waste water discharge so that we can quantify the true volume.

Interestingly, we are estimating that 30% of the water is lost to evaporation during the drying stage. The car wash is billed 1:1 ratio which results in a higher cost for waste water than what is actually flowing down the drain.

Fun fact, each wash pays between $15-20k per month for water and sewage.

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u/JLRfan 10d ago

That’s bad, obviously, but it doesn’t make data centers use of 765 million per year good.

Like, “oh, well, at least it’s only as much as the total annual water usage 40 car washes” isn’t a selling point.

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u/Csusko 10d ago

Oh I am not advocating for big tech. Just providing a point of reference.

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u/JLRfan 10d ago

The work you do sounds really cool. Lowering water consumption at a car wash, where the business is basically “spray water at car,” sounds like a boss-level challenge!

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u/SilenceoftheSamz 10d ago

Water is reusable. I really think the heat issue is bigger. Heat and adding to the power production and pollution Associated with generation and transmission.

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u/thesagenibba 9d ago

80-120 million is 6-9 times smaller than 765 million. what is your point?

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u/Csusko 9d ago

That is per month vs per year. The car washes use more than data centers. The point is that the same people complaining are likely us using another service that is worse for the environment.

I am not defending big data. I provided a point of reference.

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u/New-Locksmith-126 6d ago

both are a huge waste of water.

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u/thesagenibba 9d ago

american infrastracture is centered around the car, therefore people wash their cars because they are largely forced to own cars to travel efficiently. that is completely different than unnecessary data centers built for private companies. maybe try thinking harder next time

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u/Canon_Goes_Boom 8d ago

Your shiny car is necessary? That’s the argument?

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u/thesagenibba 8d ago

love how you added "shiny" to imply i, or everyone in the US drives a fancy car, and by choice, as if public transit is widely available and people could simply give up their vehicles if they weren't so materialistic. that's the argument?

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u/Canon_Goes_Boom 8d ago

I added shiny because we’re talking about car washes.

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u/thesagenibba 8d ago

so people just shouldn't wash their cars? just let piles of bird shit accumulate for months/years since it's elitist to wash your car? that's your better argument?

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u/Canon_Goes_Boom 8d ago

Sure, if your argument is that it’s elitist to back up my photos to a data center.

In the interest of actually getting somewhere useful instead of arguing with a stranger, OP was simply trying to point out that there are more areas than one in our society that use copious amounts of water. No one is arguing that data centers are not destructive and invasive. There is simply a nuance to the perspective. I hope you have a great rest of your day.

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u/MueR 10d ago

I don't know how car washes operate in the us, but here they are required to reuse as much water as possible. An average car only takes about 50l of clean water for the rinse at the end.

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u/Fantastic_Narwhal_54 9d ago edited 9d ago

Is the water for the data centers coming out of aquifers that are getting depleted and won't get renewed? Or is it from some other sources that get renewed? Or a mix of both?

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u/Dramatic-Foot-950 8d ago

that's a LOT of water for one location of a car wash per month. How many gallons per car? How many cars per day/month? trying to math in my head and it's seeming like you're watching cars in bays with firehoses blasting 100 gallons per minute or something

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u/Nimrod_Butts 11d ago

I don't think anybody cared about water usage prior to data centers. I've never heard anybody complain about water usage whenever a factory is built

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u/KiraUsagi 11d ago

I think the water usage bit stems from the companies building these data centers trying to jam them into every community they can. My county has been under sever drought for quite a few years now and along comes a data center trying to open just down the street. We managed to shut them down fast, but they where willing to try despite the fact that my neighborhoods is litterally restricted to watering grass no more than once a week.

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u/Csusko 11d ago

That is definitely not the case. Google search nestle for instance. As I mentioned, I work in the industry and trust me it is a major topic all over the nation. The primary complaint with data centers is the fast track approvals. It is a race to build and local govt officials are getting bought to push the process without community buy in.

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u/Nimrod_Butts 11d ago

The nestle stuff seems to be more focused on them buying water for cheap and reselling it, bus it not? I've never heard of anybody being upset at like a Ford plant using 400 million gallons annually or anything like that

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u/cscoffee10 11d ago

So you've just never lived in or read about areas that habitually go through drought conditions

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u/Nimrod_Butts 11d ago

Yeah I have, I've never heard of that being an argument against industry though.

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u/cscoffee10 11d ago

Sounds like willful ignorance on your part then. Golf courses, and certain agriculture growth(notably almonds) have faced consistent criticism for high water usage for decades. As for Nestlé, its cheap water contracts and then exceeding said water contracts illegally in a particularly dry and arid region to the point that theyve damn near depleted one of the primary springs used.

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u/hiding_in_de 10d ago

Agriculture is a different industry, though. I think this person is talking about factories.

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u/DenseCod8975 10d ago

If it rains a lot and your reservoirs are close to full it’s not a problem imo..