Residents Furious as Data Centre Drains Water Supply, Leaving Entire City Parched
Residents near a data centre in the US state of Georgia are furious because the facility siphoned off 113 million litres of water without paying. The operations of this electricity- and water-hungry infrastructure have left households in the surrounding area short of water.
Politico reported that the incident occurred in the luxury housing complex named Annelise Park in Fayetteville. Residents of Annelise Park were puzzled by the extremely low water pressure in their homes.
Local officials conducted an investigation, which led to the discovery of two industrial-scale pipes supplying water to the data centre campus, located 32 kilometres from the housing complex. One pipe was connected without the knowledge of the clean water utility manager, while the other was registered in the name of the data centre company but not recorded in the bills.
After calculations, Quality Technology Services owes $150,000 (Rp 2.6 billion) for using 109 million litres of water. This is equivalent to 44 standard Olympic swimming pools and far exceeds the previously agreed usage limit.
The incident only became public knowledge after one resident obtained a letter to the data centre company through public information disclosure and posted it on Facebook. Residents who saw the post were enraged by the data centre’s voracious water consumption.
The Fayetteville data centre campus is one of the largest data centre projects in the US, with a site area of 2.5 million square metres.
Local district officials stated that the data centre campus would generate millions of US dollars through property taxes. However, the excessive water and electricity usage has led local residents to begin resisting the project. The Fayetteville City Council eventually voted and decided to ban the issuance of new data centre permits.
The conflict in Fayetteville has made the issues surrounding data centres in Georgia even more complex. The state is now home to around 200 data centre facilities. This is because Georgia has experienced moderate to hazardous drought levels in recent years. Last month, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency following the worst land fires in several years.
One Fayetteville resident expressed that residents’ anger peaked after government officials asked residents to reduce water usage.
“We received a notification from the Fayette County water management system to stop watering lawns because water conservation was needed,” said local resident James Clifton, as quoted by Politico. “The first thing they did was force residents to stop using water while QTS was ‘creating a drought’ for months.”