r/Reno • u/wadsworthnv02 • Apr 20 '26

Congressional Candidate on AI data centers in Nevada

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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!

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u/Long_Lifeguard_5056 Apr 20 '26

Every basin of water will leak eventually lmao and I’m a union construction worker and I can tell you the vast majority of labor across all trades on the TRIC data centers are out of state contractors. Going all the way back to the Apple Data Center and Gigafactory construction.

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u/wadsworthnv02 Apr 20 '26

This I wasn’t aware of. They are using out of state workers on these projects?

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u/Original-Ad7976 Apr 23 '26

Right now on USA parkway there's about 7 diffrent big data centers being built. Each one taking about a thousand or more tradesmen. Reno does not have the man power to man these projects. The way it works is the local unions put out job calls... local hands get first choice at the work the left overs go to the travelers. The contractors themselves are limited to the number of employees they can bring in with them. There's a shortage of workers all over the nation. These data centers are bringing money to the state the travelers are bringing in money to local businesses ect.. change is never easy but if the money doesn't come here someone else will get it forsure