A Chat with ChatGPT About Texarkana Data Centers and Impact

I, like many of you, have concerns about the data center operations popping up all over the country, not just what they do and what they consume, but the speed at which they are launching. That would include the plans to do that very thing here in the Texarkana area at TexAmericas Center. But before we grab the torches and pitchforks and storm the castle, let's have a conversation.

The big long-term environmental concerns?

Electrical grid demand
Power generation
Land use
Infrastructure strain
WATER!

The demands FOR these data centers already exist and are growing every day; AI, cloud storage, streaming, online banking, telemedicine, and remote work all depend on these facilities. We increasingly demand digital services while simultaneously resisting the infrastructure required to make them happen.

Then, An Idea Struck Me!

Out of curiosity, I decided to have a chat with Chat. ChatGPT that is. Frankly, I was surprised at the candor of its answers; it seems to have a good grasp of our concerns and is, at the very least, worth the read. It's pretty short.

Open Chat Convo

Me: Hey ChatGPT, Data Center pushback is a real thing with us humans right now. They seem to be concerned about environmental destruction and extreme water usage. Can we get some of your thoughts on this issue?

Also, Me: I'm not so sure the water usage is as big a deal as people are making it out to be. To my knowledge, data centers do use a lot of water to keep their systems running cool, but does that water get used up, or does it get recycled just like most industrial water usage?

ChatGPT: Yes — and I’d frame it carefully, because both sides of the debate have legitimate points.

“Public concern about data centers is understandable because modern facilities consume enormous amounts of electricity and cooling resources. But the water issue is often more complicated than headlines make it sound. In many cases, the water used for cooling is not simply ‘used up’ and discarded. Much of it is part of a managed cooling cycle, similar to other industrial systems, where water is recirculated, treated, evaporated, or returned through wastewater systems.”

ChatGPT: Another version:

“The real environmental question is less about whether data centers use water — they absolutely do — and more about where the water comes from, how efficient the cooling system is, and whether the local community can support that demand during drought conditions or population growth.”

A few important nuances that often get lost in the conversation:

Some data centers use closed-loop cooling systems, where water is heavily recycled and reused.
Others use evaporative cooling, which can consume significant amounts of water because evaporation is part of the cooling process.

In many newer facilities, companies are moving toward:

Reclaimed wastewater
Non-potable water sources
Air cooling
Hybrid cooling systems to reduce freshwater demand

ChatGPT continued:

Your instinct is partly correct: water is not usually “destroyed.” It remains in the broader water cycle. But from a community standpoint, the concern is that large facilities can temporarily remove huge amounts of freshwater from local municipal supplies or aquifers, especially in drought-prone regions.

End Chat Convo

There you go, a pretty reasonable response, I think, for our known facts at the moment.

The experts tell us that data centers do require substantial cooling resources, but modern facilities increasingly recycle water and adopt more efficient technologies. The debate often centers less on whether water is consumed at all, and more on whether local infrastructure and environmental conditions can sustainably support rapid data center growth.

There are a ton of questions, I'm sure, and people in the Ark-La-Tex want answers. To me, the conversation needs to be more about what they plan to build here. And can our infrastructure handle what it will take to do it?

Not In My Backyard!

You can certainly jump aboard the NIMBY crowd if you like, or we can have a conversation about this one, the data center planned for here. With everything we want our handheld communication devices to do, these centers have to be built somewhere. Right now, the demand far exceeds the supply, so what's next?

The first answers to explore came in the release a couple of weeks ago from the folks at TexAmericas Center. Let's start there...

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