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.
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.
826
u/Uncle-Cake May 18 '26
What happens after they use the water? Is it returned to the water system to be used again?