December 20, 2022
A new information then reveals that Google consumed 274.5 million gallons (about 1.2 billion liters) of water in The Dalles alone in 2021. While Google’s water consumption in the United States totaled 3.3 billion gallons (12.4 billion liters) in 2021, with the rest of the world accounting for an additional 971 million gallons (4.4 billion liters).
Following a legal battle between a local media outlet and the city of The Dalles in Oregon, which sought to keep Google datacenters water usage confidential, residents of The Dalles, Oregon, and the rest of the world can now learn how much water Google datacenters consume and are used to cool computers.
A lawsuit filed by the city on behalf of Google against Oregon’s largest newspaper, The Oregonian/OregonLive, to keep the water-use information private was dropped, according to the newspaper. Google also confirmed in an email that its water usage figures would no longer be a trade secret.
Looking back further, consumption is as follows: 2020: 279.8 million gallons; 2019: 233.3 million gallons; 2018: 150.7 million gallons; 2017: 124.2 million gallons; 2016: 113.1 million gallons; 2015: 148.3 million gallons; 2014: 132.3 million gallons; and 2012: 104.3 million gallons.
Google also claims that the total annual water consumption of its datacenter operations is equivalent to the water footprint of 29 golf courses in the southwest United States.
The sources for this piece include an article in TheRegister.
