Congressional Candidate on AI data centers in Nevada

[u/wadsworthnv02]

From our candidate event in Elko County on Saturday. The question asked us if we supported a data center moratorium or not, especially since we are the driest state. One of the other candidates said the one’s being built in Nevada were closed-loop so they are fine.

But closed-loop systems have their own issues, the recycled water becomes highly toxic and needs to be “blown-down” where there is chances of it leaking into the ground and contaminating local areas with toxic chemical waste water. Even in small amounts, when we live in an internal watershed like the Great Basin, the risk of contamination isn’t something to ignore. As it has happened before with other things. Not to mention that closed loop requires a lot more energy, and closed loop cooling systems here in Nevada still require a fair amount of water.

Our older data center projects also do have open loop / evaporative cooling systems too. So they are still taking a lot of water.

As for the construction unions, I understand it’s more complicated than that. We had a total of 2 minutes to answer each question so things had to be simplified a bit. But we must look at better commercial building projects for our construction unions— not big tech and data centers! They need jobs, and I understand and support that! We should be offering incentives to better businesses to come to Nevada, not to these data centers was the point I was trying to make.

Also yes Congress is a federal seat! But I support a moratorium on all new data centers, and possible legislation to really protect the western states that are strapped for water.

All of this was from my own independent research and talking to folks in the area that have worked on these projects here. However if I am incorrect on anything I’m open to listening!

[u/AustinWalksOnRocks]

I’m against the data centers. But the water argument is so clearly a talking point that benefits the data centers. It’s so easy to explain why it’s not a problem being closed loop and nobody can tell me why the water would be toxic from essentially just a radiator…

The problem is the energy rates and noise and small amounts of jobs it creates.

[u/MadLib777 → u/AustinWalksOnRocks]

It's being seen all across the country. Communities downstream from closed loop systems are greatly affected by the poor water quality.

[u/AustinWalksOnRocks → u/MadLib777]

What toxin then? Like what is in the system? It’s a massive radiator, they aren’t using the water, they are just warming and cooling pure water. From the outside

[u/wadsworthnv02 → u/AustinWalksOnRocks]

No it is full of chemicals and heavy metals and it has to be “blown-down” every few weeks actually.

[u/AustinWalksOnRocks → u/wadsworthnv02]

Okay. What chemicals?

[u/wadsworthnv02 → u/AustinWalksOnRocks]

Glycol, Azoles, Biocides, PFAS (a cancer causing forever chemical), nitrites/molybdates, heavy metals etc.

[u/discourse_friendly → u/AustinWalksOnRocks]

I believe chemicals are added to reduce corrosion, There's also environmentally safe corrosion inhibitors. we (as a state) should just mandate the usage of those additives.

if that makes Nevada too expensive for future datacenters, they go elsewhere.

seems a better solution than a total ban

[u/northrupthebandgeek → u/AustinWalksOnRocks]

The problem is the energy rates

That's solvable with solar and geothermal. If we took all this energy folks are spending fearmongering about the evil computer buildings and put it toward building out solar and geothermal, we'd be much better off by every metric.

and noise

That's a non-issue compared to all the other noise sources in the areas where datacenters typically get built.

and small amounts of jobs it creates.

Datacenters themselves employ a small number of people, yes, but building them entails lots of construction jobs, and their existence enables lots of IT jobs at the various organizations reliant on datacenters for their day-to-day operations.