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Comment by emushack | Hacker News Reader

Putting a price on it does not solve it because the entities that compete for the water with the data centers are out-matched financially. How is a city that has a budget that is constantly dealing with budget cuts supposed to pay more for water than a multi-billion dollar company? Taxing it does not solve it either, because there are so many incentives to writing loopholes into the tax code.

They don't even have to use water - there are alternatives. The solve is changing behavior of the leaders in this greedy industry.

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> Putting a price on it does not solve it because the entities that compete for the water with the data centers are out-matched financially.

I don't think this argument works at all, because bigger datacenter operator does NOT mean "tolerates higher OPEX".

> How is a city [...] supposed to pay more for water than a multi-billion dollar company?

I do not understand this; the city would not compete with the datacenter operator for water-- the farmers would, and both of those would be paying the municipality for the water (ideally), not vice-versa. Residential users already pay much more for water (typically, compared to farming/industry) so any renegotiation is unlikely to affect them much.

Cities in my area have to buy their water. The sources of water are limited and finite. Data centers also buy it from the same sources.

I'm lost. How is a bigger business unable to tolerate higher opex in a space that is famous for economies of scale?

Residential water prices should probably be regulated and fixed (or near-fixed).

But people don't realize that residential water use is usually a tiny fraction of the total available supply.

Just price the rest of the non-residential supply at market prices.

Yep. And at the same time, it's the residents that are asked to conserve. Meanwhile, we let data centers off the hook when it comes to conservation?

When I drive around my town, I can't drive more than a few blocks without seeing a sign about Stage 3 water restrictions. For residents. Just doesn't seem fair.

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