Huge Data Center Plan in Utah Causes Big Fight
A TV star wants to build one of the world's largest computer centers, but many people are worried about water and the environment.
Kevin O'Leary, a rich businessman from the TV show Shark Tank, wants to build a giant data center in Utah. County leaders quickly said yes to his plan in May, even though hundreds of local people came to complain. The computer center would be huge - covering 40,000 acres and using more power than the whole state of Utah currently uses. Many people are upset because Utah is running out of water, and they think this project will make things worse.
The meeting where leaders voted was very tense and angry. Commissioner Boyd Bingham told protesters to grow up and threatened to have police remove them. The three county commissioners left the room and voted 3-0 to approve the project on a livestream. O'Leary wasn't even at the meeting, but later said on social media that the protesters were paid troublemakers who were bused in from other places.
Data centers are big buildings full of computers that store information for the internet. They need lots of electricity and water to keep cool. More and more of these centers are being built in small towns across America. Senator Bernie Sanders wants to stop all new data centers until the government can study them better.
Utah is having its worst water shortage ever because this winter was the warmest on record. Scientists say O'Leary's data center would make the heat and pollution much worse in an area already hurt by climate change. The heat from all the computers would make nighttime temperatures 8 to 12 degrees hotter. This would dry out the land and make water evaporate faster, affecting the whole area for many years.
The data center would need 16.6 billion gallons of water every year - enough to fill 25,000 Olympic swimming pools. This makes people angry because Governor Cox has asked everyone to pray for rain and stop watering their lawns and gardens. After news stories about his data center came out, O'Leary started blaming China for the protests, claiming the Chinese government is paying people to oppose American data centers.
It's like putting a hairdryer that has the energy consumption of New York City in the middle of a fragile desert ecosystem on the shores of one of the most imperiled lakes in the world.
Comprehension quiz preview
1. How many acres would the data center cover?
2. What TV show is Kevin O'Leary known for?
3. How much hotter would nighttime temperatures get because of the data center?