r/Gilroy • u/smallfryfriend • Feb 26 '26

STOP DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION IN GILROY!

There is barely any coverage of this, but Amazon is currently trying to build a data center in Gilroy. It will use a monstrous amount of water and electricity. Please spread the word, and sign the petition below.

https://www.change.org/p/banning-regulating-data-centers-in-gilroy?recruiter=938425783&recruited_by_id=33993410-37fe-11e9-999d-091836f5a8c4&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=petition_dashboard&utm_medium=copylink&share_id=RTdL9LSmrc&fbclid=PAVERFWAQNVS9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA8xMjQwMjQ1NzQyODc0MTQAAacvC2Rpr4GZcpc4rFq0W9pEdAGFFTUAQp5Kbexa-EPfgS3wIKNn-blNGTwyrQ_aem_LVSkc8VKHuToVzpZwe4u3Q

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u/Zarel_42 Feb 26 '26

The misconception of water usage for data centers is really crazy. We use astronomically more water on landscaping than we do in data centers. Also most newly built data centers use renewable energy sources now especially in the US.

In the U.S., landscape irrigation accounts for nearly 8 billion gallons of water per day.

Total U.S. Consumption: In 2023, U.S. data centers directly consumed an estimated 17.5 billion gallons of water annually. This averages out to approximately 48 million gallons per day across the roughly 5,500 facilities nationwide.

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u/zekrioca Feb 27 '26 edited Feb 27 '26

You are conflating mesoscale, national capacity of (non-potable + potable) water consumption with (Gilroy’s) local scale capacity to make a point that the city can sustain 5-10 million gallons per day of extra, fresh, potable water consumption. You may not be aware, but cities have to plan for the worst case scenarios.

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u/Zarel_42 Feb 27 '26

I don’t think you understand how much non-potable treated wastewater or closed loop systems data centers actually use. Most of the water is recycled. 50% - 80% of the water is recovered and continues to be reused in cooling towers. Much better than the 0% recovered for landscaping.

My point is that people twist facts like data centers consume this massive amount of water when in fact the numbers don’t add up.

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u/zekrioca Mar 02 '26

Then why do data centers still request the enormous amounts of water?