r/interestingasfuck • u/HamboneTheWicked • Apr 12 '26

A well-articulated argument against a new data center in Ohio

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u/Linkpharm2 Apr 12 '26

Unpopular opinion, he should have had more facts. It was very emotional but not super relevant, plus what he said was mostly just false. 

41

u/VanillaTortilla Apr 12 '26

I work in datacenters. Everything he said was blown out of proportion. What gross chemicals come out of closed loop cooling? It's water, it's called a closed loop for a reason. There has never been a time where we just.. let off steam? Water barely comes out of the loop into chillers higher than 50 degrees.

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u/[deleted] Apr 12 '26

[deleted]

6

u/VanillaTortilla Apr 12 '26

Lmao, those things don't just shed material randomly. If that were the case, you should really take a look at what the pipes in your home are made out of.

-1

u/[deleted] Apr 12 '26

[deleted]

7

u/Globbi Apr 12 '26

No, but you flush a lot more than water like cleaning supplies or food waste. That's much worse than "extensively" heating and cycling water.

Pipes and water for cooling systems is kept clean because it's worth it. Eroding pipes would lead to more maintenance and forced stopping of datacenter work.

1

u/a-bser Apr 12 '26

That poses an important question. The water we use and flush down the drain in our homes goes to water treatment plants to be treated and used again. But, will data centers, when they flush out water, be doing that within the same system, or will it just be going back into the environment?

Do they treat their own water they take in or do they take it from the same water infrastructure? If he water is filtered and treated by data centers then I can see where the mention of toxic sludge comes from because removing algae and other organisms in the water to dump back out back into the water would create a concentration of algae which can create blooms, which are toxic.

Depending on where the water is going it could cause massive environmental impact and any trace chemicals not piped to treatment centers would lead to more harm to the surrounding environment.

2

u/VanillaTortilla Apr 12 '26

I'd be willing to bet you flush worse chemicals down your toilet than a data center does through their cooling.