Big Data Centers: A Hidden Cost for Small Towns

Data centers are huge, usually between half a million and several million square feet – the size of eight to forty football fields. They look plain, with no windows and thick concrete walls that keep out intruders. Inside, thousands of racks hold special processors called GPUs or TPUs. Each rack uses more power than a typical American home, so the whole building can consume electricity that would otherwise serve an entire town. The computers generate a lot of heat, and keeping them cool requires enormous amounts of water. Some centers pull millions of gallons each day from local rivers, aquifers or city supplies. That water could have irrigated farms or filled household taps instead of turning into steam that keeps the machines from overheating.Even though a data center can drain a town’s water supply and overload its power grid, it usually creates only a handful of jobs – between thirty and one hundred people. Most of those are highly trained technicians or security staff, not a broad employment boom for the community. Local governments often promise high-paying jobs and quick permits when approving a data center project. But the reality can leave residents with depleted groundwater, strained electricity networks, lower property values and potential health risks for children. Because of these hidden costs, many towns are choosing to reject proposals for new data centers.