I came across this article in Politico the other day:
A data center drained 30M gallons of water unnoticed — until residents complained about low water pressure
Residents in Fayetteville, Georgia, noticed low water pressure last year. The utility discovered two unaccounted-for water connections at one of the nation’s largest data center campuses.
The Atlanta skyline looms over a field of dry grass during a 2019 drought. Georgia is dealing with similar conditions this year. | David Goldman/AP
Would it surprise you if you learned that this water use was unauthorized and not being paid for by the data center developer Quality Technology Services (“QTS”) which is - of course - owed by the private equity form Blackstone?
“When the county utility investigated, officials discovered two industrial-scale water hookups feeding a data center campus located 20 miles south of downtown Atlanta. One water connection had been installed without the utility’s knowledge, and the other was not linked to the company’s account and therefore wasn’t being billed.”
So what action did the Fayette County Water System Director take? Was QTS fined for its actions (bolding emphasis mine)?
Tigert, who sent the 2025 letter to QTS, said the utility didn’t know about the water hookups because the connection process “got mixed up” as the county transitioned to a cloud-based system while also trying to accommodate an industrial customer. Tigert also said her staff is small and at capacity…
She said it’s possible her staff did know about hookups but that she hadn’t been able to locate the inspection report. “I may have hit ‘send’ too soon,” she said about the 2025 letter to QTS.
While the utility charged the data center a higher construction rate for the unapproved water consumption, Tigert confirmed the utility did not penalize or fine the data center.
That decision has some residents stewing.
“It’s just frustrating to see them come into our community and run all over us like the citizens don’t matter, and then they’re above the law when they do break it,” Clifton said.
Gregory Pierce, director of the UCLA Water Resources Group, said it’s unusual that the utility didn’t fine the data center for breaking the rules.
“I don’t know exactly what’s happening here, but they probably don’t want to upset one of their new and largest customers,” said Pierce, who is studying the growing grip data centers have on local water systems.
Tigert defended the utility’s decision to not levy a fine.
“They’re our largest customer, and we have to be partners,” she said. “It’s called customer service.”
Fined? of course not. The reason? “They’re our largest customer, and we have to be partners,” she said. “It’s called customer service.”
Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but that data center NEEDS Fayette County’s water. It has no other options. “Customer service” my a**. What about the customer service to those residents who have no water pressure?
Until recently, I was the Chair of a local Water/Sewer District for roughly 30 years. While we practiced good “customer service”, we did periodically fine people/entities when they did not follow the rules. We have rules to ensure everything works as agreed. And if rules (laws) are not enforced, everything will not work as planned.
It’s called accountability and consequences.
In another episode of the Hatfields vs. the McCoys People vs. Data Centers, check out this short video (h/t Krisi on Bluesky - and, yes, this video should make your blood boil):
@morningbrew Your favorite foreign billionaire's favorite foreign billionaire
Near unanimous local opposition, but the data center still passes.
What’s the common denominator? We’ve lost the political will to hold corporations and officials and the wealthy elite accountable for their actions.
This goes back to a post Mister Mix wrote yesterday where he stated, “To win, Democrats need to distinguish themselves from Republicans, and offer solutions to the horrible problems that Republicans have created, including but not limited to: repealing the right to abortion, not feeding the poor, making healthcare unaffordable for pretty much everyone, disenfranchising black and brown people, and arresting anyone whose skin color is browner than the darker side of eggshell white. We might have to tax the rich and corporations to do this.”
Mister Mix is absolutely correct on pointing out these issues/problems. However, I’d like to respectfully point out what I’ll call the “umbrella issue”: people have lost faith in government’s ability to positively impact their lives AND government’s inability to hold people and entities of power/privilege accountable.
In my campaigns, I used to ask people what would happen if the owner or CEO of their company did not believe in the mission of the company and wanted it to fail? After some hesitation, I’d usually get a few people who would sheepishly blurt out, “the company would fail and we’d lose our jobs”.
Bingo!
Let’s be clear: the current version of the Republican party wants government to fail. They do not believe in its mission. Heck, Reagan put it bluntly 40 years ago when he said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help."
So, we live in a non-virtuous feedback loop where Republicans gain power, ensure that government does not work for people, they tell everyone government doesn’t work, they lie by blaming Democrats, and then get elected again to continue down their path of social destruction (all, btw, in service to their ultimate goal of transferring as much wealth as possible to themselves, their cronies, donors and corporations).
Republicans do not want consequences or accountability for their destruction of government.
The challenge for Democrats is to show people through specific and meaningful action that government CAN actually help people AND people who break laws CAN be held accountable.
If we can’t do that, none of the problems mentioned by Mister Mix, or any other problems, will end up being solved.
PS - I don’t think most people understand the scale and disruption that these data centers pose. Kevin O’Leary’s data center in Box Elder County, Utah is planned to be around 40,000 acres, or roughly 62 square miles. That nearly twice the size of Manhattan (which is 33.6 square miles). It will require up to 9 gigawatts of power, up to 3 times as much as the island of Manhattan uses on a peak summer day.
PPS - data center approved.
Basically every single one of these people were against the data center. It was still approved.
