I mean so what they just pump it through and send it back to the river probably cleaner then it originally was. What’s the problem? The water is not being wasted
Nearly all water that we use is eventually recycled. Steam will eventually come back down as rain, and rainwater works its way through the ground and into streams and rivers - the magic of the water cycle. Water is a renewable resource from that perspective. The issue is the rate at which we use it, because the water cycle is not instantaneous. If you use water faster than it can be recycled, you will find yourself running short. This is why water reservoir levels are dropping all along the Colorado river.
This is very much a human made problem, but nobody is talking about it.
The flow rate through the dam has been increased to generate more power due to the lack of new baseline power generation capabilities. The demand comes from the shutdown of coal and gas fired powerplants across the west coast. The dam has to flow more water to generate more power and the water cannot be replaced fast enough.
Not necessarily. I put heat into rivers every time I swim and it's a total non-issue.
Heat could potentially be an issue in sufficient quantities - if for example Google doesn't have sufficient dissipation infrastructure before the water is returned to the river. We don't know whether or not this is the case. It would be irresponsible to make that assumption with a complete absence of evidence.
It's actually a bit of a problem now that the power plants are starting to shut down.