Posted on 05/16/2026 5:07:50 AM PDT by Red Badger
An artificial intelligence data center was running up a water bill for the ages, and local residents were the ones to point out the problem.
In November, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Microsoft had a new “superfactory” named Fairwater spanning over 1 million square feet outside of Atlanta.
Chief Technical Officer Mark Russinovich explained why the site is so massive. “To make improvements in the capabilities of the AI, you need to have larger and larger infrastructure to train it,” he said in a statement.
The site developer, Quality Technology Services, purchased the plot in 2022 for $154 million.
Ironically, Microsoft claimed the site uses a “closed-loop cooling system” that “consumes almost zero water” to operate.
According to a report by Politico, the issue wasn’t discovered until residents of a subdivision in Fayetteville, Georgia, started complaining that their water pressure was extremely low.
When the utility company looked into the matter, they found two water lines going to QTS that weren’t in their system.
They determined the facility had used almost 30 million gallons of water valued at close to $150,000.
This information only became public last week when a letter addressed to QTS, written in May 2025, came out via a public records request. The letter did not specify the time period for the water usage. A water official said it was about four months; a QTS representative said it was closer to 9 to 15 months.
(Excerpt) Read more at westernjournal.com ...
>>>As though you can just “tap in” to a massive amount of the water supply discretely without anyone knowing.<<<
Okay, probably off-topic and perhaps an annoyance as such, but you’d reminded me of the ancient story about King David wanting to build the Temple (yeah we all know it was his son’s project, but in many ways it was a turn-key operation)...
>>>
When King David decided to build the Temple in Jerusalem, he commanded that shafts
be dug to a depth of fifteen hundred cubits. And lo, they struck a stone in one of those
shafts. As soon as he learned of it. King David went there with Ahitophel, his counselor,
and with other members of the court. They descended into the pit, and there, at the bot-
tom, they saw the immense stone, shining like the darkest emerald.
All those who saw it were amazed, and they knew that it must, indeed, be that fabled
stone, which served as the world’s foundation. Yet all at once King David was possessed
by a great curiosity to see what lay beneath it. King David ordered it to be raised, but a
voice came forth from the stone, saying: “Be warned that I must not be lifted. I serve to
hold back the waters of the Abyss.”
<<<
More at
125. THE FOUNDATION STONE
SOME-—BUT CONSTRUCTION IS LONG PAST.
BUT IS NO LONGER EXISTING FOR THE LOCAL RESIDENTS.
YOU CAN MAKE POWER.
YOU CANNOT “MAKE WATER”
What the water was used for should be clear when they look at the dates the people noticed their water pressure was down. If happened before, during or after the site was operational should answer the questions.
THE POWER REQUIREMENTS FOR THAT FACILITY (40,000 ACRES) (62.5 SQUARE MILES) IS MORE THAN THE ENTIRE STATE OF UTAH USES RIGHT NOW. ADJACENT TO BONNEVILLE SALT FLATS/I-80
WHERE IS THAT GOING TO COME FROM?
I did report and source the information regarding the Data Center in Atlanta and the general attempt to stop the building of Data Centers.
This isn't a story about some evil AI data farm. This is a story about an incompetent water utility.
From another article on the same story found here:
Vanessa Tigert, director of the Fayette County Water System, attributed the oversight to an administrative error that occurred during the county’s transition to smart meters.
“Fayette County is a suburb, it’s mostly residential, and we don’t have much commercial meters in our system anyway,” Tigert said. “And so we didn’t realize our connection point wasn’t working.”
Stop stating facts. You'll confuse the knee jerk posters.
You don’t need to make water.
Sue them for all you can. That was strictly illegal & we certainly know why they did it.
“WHERE IS THAT GOING TO COME FROM?”
And why are they doing this? It’s everywhere.
Correct, but you can convert sea water into fresh water through desalination.
Computers are smaller than ever now, why would they need huge buildings to house them?
It’s not pumped back into the water lines. A lot of it uses open cooling and will evaporate after absorbing the heat. The rest could be pumped back into the original source, but that still requires the municipal water system to have the capacity.
There isn’t really a good reason to tap into drinking water supplies anyway for this sort of project, they could go right to the source or develop their own water sources.
As it is local governments are basically just sending their residents the bill for the data centers, which is the root of the problem. Water and electricity shortages are just symptoms of the problem.
CUT OFF THE WATER.
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