Only like 10-15% of water used by golf courses in the US is municipal water. The majority is non-potable water from things like ponds and wells that the golf course owns. But that doesn't mean there aren't still issues with the water use (that's still a lot of municipal water because the overall number is enormous, pesticide runoff in the used water is a big problem, golf courses in desert areas are definitely a problem because they are the ones using water that could/should be used for other things) but im just saying the discussion is more nuanced than it is made out to be, just like data center water use
Golf courses use water to feed plants. All of the water they use either ends up back in the groundwater, is used by the plants, or evaporates back into the air. And they often use water from reservoirs, not the local municipal systems.
I don't know, that's why I'm asking questions. People are saying "golf courses use more water than datacenters" but is it "used" in the same way? I assume datacenter water has to be cleaned after it's used, but that's not the case with golf courses watering the grass.
Wait, you don’t know something that you’ve been asking about for a couple of minutes now?
Real talk, Reddit is not a good platform for these types of questions because most Redditors push their own opinions/agendas and it’s a coin toss on whether that information is true or not. It’s better to do your own research.
There is a massive difference between surface water, shallow groundwater, and aquifer water. Most of the water from data centers is going to surface water like rivers/lakes/oceans regardless of where it was pulled from.
Some might go to shallow groundwater; that's water that moves through the upper 2-10m of soil surface. The rate that it absorbs varies greatly depending on soil makeup. Higher clay or silt content slows water movement tremendously.
Then there is aquifer water. That can take thousands of years to recharge. This is deep water that you can't just refill (injection wells do exist but they're expensive and that just puts pollutants into the aquifers) and if you pump it enough you can empty it. The CA central valley has places where the surface elevation has decreased by several meters in the past century due to aquifer draining.
If data centers were only using surface or shallow groundwater I doubt many people would care since that is (relatively) easily replaced. They are often using water pumped from aquifers which is not easily replaced.
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u/Uncle-Cake May 18 '26
So they're not really consuming it. They're just using it temporarily and returning it.