What Karen Hao's Correction Really Tells Us About Data Center Water Pressure
Karen Hao's book correction reveals the real story: even after fixing the math, data center water scrutiny is intensifying across the U.S.
Key Insight
A 1,000x unit conversion error made headlines, but even after the correction, the Chile data center controversy persisted. The real story is not about bad math, but about intensifying water scrutiny in a resource-constrained world.
Last week journalist Karen Hao published a refreshingly candid thread about a unit-conversion error in her new book Empire of AI. A Chilean government document listed a proposed Google data center's projected water use in liters per second instead of cubic meters per hour. The mistake inflated the number by a factor of 1,000.
The correct figure is still large (roughly 104.5% of the residential water used by the nearby city of Cerrillos in 2019), but nowhere near the apocalyptic headline the original error produced. Karen owned the mistake immediately and promised a correction in the next printing.
The Controversy Survived the Math Fix
What makes the thread worth reading for anyone following data center expansion is what comes next. Even after fixing the three extra zeros, the Chile story did not go away:
- Local residents still objected.
- A court partially revoked the environmental permit citing aquifer risk and climate concerns.
- Google paused the project and later redesigned it with significantly less water-intensive cooling.
In short, the controversy survived the math fix.
Karen closed her thread by pointing to the broader trend that actually matters in 2025 and 2026:
- Bloomberg (May 2025): two-thirds of all new data centers built since 2022 are in counties with high or extreme water stress, a 70% increase over earlier patterns.
- IEA: global data center water withdrawals already exceed 560 billion liters per year and are on track to double by 2030.
That is the real conversation now playing out in New Albany, Lancaster, Des Moines, Northern Virginia, Phoenix, and dozens of other fast-growing corridors.
Where the Pressure Actually Shows Up in the United States Today
| Area | Primary U.S. Regulation (2025–2026) | Current Real-World Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Water Withdrawal & Sourcing | State water-rights permits, "no net increase" clauses | Virginia, Ohio, and Iowa now routinely require reclaimed municipal effluent |
| On-Site Cooling Treatment | Legionella plans, WUE benchmarks | Chemical programs increasingly outsourced to specialists |
| Blowdown / Wastewater | Clean Water Act NPDES (new data-center general permits) | Ohio, Georgia, and Texas rolled out dedicated general permits in 2024–2025 |
| Stormwater | NPDES construction and industrial permits | Large campuses trigger rigorous erosion and post-construction controls |
| Emerging State Rules | Mandatory reuse targets, public dashboards, tax incentives | Projects move 12–18 months faster when water strategy is solved early |
The Real Takeaway
The Chile saga minus three zeros is now the everyday reality for hyperscale and colocation projects across the country. The numbers are rarely cartoonish, but the scrutiny is intense and growing.
Getting the units right is table stakes. Designing water sourcing, treatment, recycling, and discharge compliance into the project from the first conceptual drawing is what separates the campuses that break ground on schedule from the ones that spend years in hearings.
The water conversation around data centers is not going away. It is only getting more precise.
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