Why are you using water use as a metric for LLM environmental impact, and not energy use? The only water use in data centers would be for cooling tower open-loop evaporative cooling; this is far smaller than e.g irrigation demands. This water can also be reclaimed water or condensate from dehumidification, or sourced from shallow aquifers unsuitable for drinking.
Even if you did use city water, usage is negligible compared to what everything else. NYC uses open-loop once through cooling for refrigerators and such in restaurants right now, for example.
Energy use (and corresponding CO2 emissions) is a much more salient metric.
Why are you using water use as a metric for LLM environmental impact, and not energy use? The only water use in data centers would be for cooling tower open-loop evaporative cooling; this is far smaller than e.g irrigation demands. This water can also be reclaimed water or condensate from dehumidification, or sourced from shallow aquifers unsuitable for drinking.
Even if you did use city water, usage is negligible compared to what everything else. NYC uses open-loop once through cooling for refrigerators and such in restaurants right now, for example.
Energy use (and corresponding CO2 emissions) is a much more salient metric.
Mostly because water use was the most common criticism I’d happened to run into. The linked article has more metrics.