r/technology • u/l0st1nP4r4d1ce • 1d 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/TBradley 23h ago

The six data centers reporting as of Sept. 30 show a total use of 765 million gallons of water last year, enough water to fill 1,159.93 Olympic-size swimming pools.  More improper redaction shows that the data center using the most water annually is Fireball Group LLC, the Google Data Center in Papillion. Fireball LLC reports 547.88 megagallons for their 2025 Annual Water Consumption.

Force them to upgrade Fireball to use less water for the sake of sane policy making. It is using twice as much water as the other 5 data centers combined. Very on point name though.

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u/Csusko 15h 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/JLRfan 10h 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/SilenceoftheSamz 8h 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/Csusko 6h ago

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

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u/JLRfan 6h 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/Nimrod_Butts 12h 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 12h 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 12h 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 12h 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 11h 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 11h ago

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

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u/cscoffee10 10h 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 23m ago

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

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u/DenseCod8975 8h ago

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