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/WanderWut 7h ago

Context matters here, of course throwing out big numbers and comparisons of how many Olympic pools sounds dramatic (weird unit of measurement anyway?) but how does that compare to everything else? For example the amount of water entirety of all data centers in the U.S. use up in one year is just 3% of the water that golf courses will use in a single year.

It’s wild how data centers are being portrayed as the single greatest threat to the planet’s water supply when they’re a drop in the bucket compared to countless other things we consume without giving them a second thought. Nobody bats an eye when someone says they’re going golfing, despite golf courses being vastly more water-intensive, but mention using ChatGPT for a cake recipe and suddenly you’re being witch-hunted in the comments because apparently you’re personally responsible for making the planet run out of water.

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u/TBradley 6h ago

I think golf courses need to be charged water rates that make it financially difficult to justify using millions of gallons of water. This isn’t just data centers but they are problematic as much as golf courses and growing alfalfa in the desert.