I’m one of the millions of people who rely on data centers every day for business and pleasure. I ask Google for any fact I need to include in an article I’m writing. If I have something I want our whole family to know, I use an email address that includes everyone. On a recent Saturday, the GPS in my smart phone directed me to a friend’s new home in an Elgin subdivision. When I can’t find an item I want in area stores, I order it on line. I didn’t realize each of these actions uses water until I read an article in the Rockford Register Star.
I was amazed to learn that a single data center can churn through millions of gallons of water per day to keep hot-running equipment cool. Google is planning to add two more to their three cavernous facilities located in The Dalles, a city on the Columbia River in north-central Oregon. The placement of these water-guzzlers in drought-prone areas is an increasing concern around the globe.
I can’t imagine a million gallons of water. When I was growing up, our farm home didn’t have indoor plumbing. Dad carried in five-gallon pailfuls of fresh water pumped from the well in our backyard. Later, he carried out five-gallon pailfuls of used water.
The three of us used water sparingly. On Mondays, wash day, he filled a copper boiler, set it on the cook stove to heat and dumped it into Mom’s wringer washer. She cleaned all of our dirty clothes in the same soapy water beginning with a load of underwear and ending with Dad’s overalls. Saturday evenings, bath night, the water heated on the stove made about four inches in our portable, rubber tub. I stepped in first, Mom was second and Dad was last.
With hot and cold water coming out of our faucets, Ken and I don’t think about how much we’re using. Last month, the village billed us for a little over three thousand gallons. That figures out to about one hundred gallons per day flowing in through the meter and out through the sewer.
We each inhabit our own little world. We turn to the media to learn what’s happening in other spheres. In this day and age of 24-hour news, we are inundated with reports and must sift through what we see, hear and read to find the facts provided by journalists.
What are your sources for news?