It should be recirculated not wasted. Maybe something else going on who knows.
If you have a large volume of water available for cooling it’s called pump and dump. You use the water, it cools the heat exchanger and then you simply discharge it.
The water will eventually disapate the heat it has collected. Coolers or chillers are expensive to run and also require water treatment.
I’m probably missing something technical. But it sure seems like an obvious question to bring up for a laymen if one is going to report on this, right? Even if you just say ‘the authorities had no comment about what happens to the water afterwards. The experts we contacted are baffled as to the final destination of the water, and couldn’t even speculate.’ I mean if the point is to be outraged by this water consumption, why not spell it out if the water is just poured into the ground or whatever?
Freegards