"A curious case in Georgia serves as a warning for many parts of the US hastily approving data center developments without first updating their water systems to better monitor for severe upticks in usage.

On Friday, Politico reported that one of the country’s biggest data center developments had guzzled nearly 30 million gallons of water without paying for it. Even worse, the water grab came at a time when nearby drought-stricken residents were warned to restrict their personal water consumption and some reported sudden decreases in water pressure."

Rules for thee but not for me đŸ˜’

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/05/data-center-used-30-million-gallons-of-water-without-initially-paying/

Data center guzzled 30 million gallons of water, and nobody noticed for months

Can AI save us from the AI industry’s endless thirst for water? Outlook not so good.

Ars Technica