Data Centers and AI are Water Commitment Issues

Data Centers are the next issue hitting Idaho. The legislature is scrambling to write laws that will protect Idaho while accommodating the data centers being built here.

In my mind, it is a commitment issue.

Everyone wants the benefits of data centers. We all have this burning desire to make cartoons of ourselves that make us look good and make our lives look fun and inviting. At least that is what I see on social media. Those require A.I., which relies on a data center that requires power and water to function.

I am sure there are other benefits to A.I., but so far, the cartoon thing seems to be the biggest hit! What we don’t realize is that every cartoon probably needs 10 gallons of water to produce. (Please recognize I am using the cartoons as just one humorous example of the influence that A.I. has on our lives. I know A.I. has been used in countless ways to better our daily lives.)

The legislature is writing laws that will require data centers to fund and pay for their own development. Data centers, however, can not make it snow or rain any better than farmers can. So even if they are willing to pay, where will the resources needed to provide power and water come from?

So the connection between A.I. and water is that we have to think far enough ahead to recognize what commitment we are signing up for. The need for more water leads us to build more reservoirs to store water when we can get it, recharge basins to improve the health of the aquifer, conduct cloud seeding, build hydroelectric power plants, and build gas and nuclear power plants. These are all interconnected issues that require us to address the demands placed on the outdated systems we currently have.

In Idaho and across America, individuals demand the right to make cartoons of themselves, yet they oppose recharge, new reservoirs, dams, and cloud seeding. They oppose upgrading and maintaining power and water facilities. They oppose new nuclear power systems. They oppose growth, yet they want to live here. They oppose spending money on anything other than education, which seems to be doing a poor job of teaching that point A leads to point B.

In Idaho, we risk losing all data centers in Idaho. I do not know enough to recognize the pros vs. cons of that impact. I am suspicious that every cost we demand a data center pay, we, the consumer, will eventually pay for anyway!

So we either use taxpayer money to pay for updated infrastructure and the state owns the improvements, or we make Meta pay. Meta then takes ownership of those improvements. I know which route I would rather go down.

I know the legislature is simply responding to its constituents. We are always trying to have our cake and eat it too. Growth, technology, and lifestyles all come at a price. You can’t have your “own private Idaho” and eat at an In-N-Out Burger two blocks down the road. You also can’t eat a burger and make a cartoon of yourself without addressing the impacts of water on both industries.