Sept. 2, 2206 Editor, The News-Gazette: I am 81 years old. I have bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering with emphasis on water resources and transportation. I have 50 years government experience with the military, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, VDOT and FEMA. I am a licensed professional engineer (PE) in the states of Virginia, New York and Maryland. I am also a certified project management professional (PMP) by the Project Management Institute.
Not one molecule of water from any source should ever be used to cool any planned data center in Botetourt County, or anyplace else where water supply is at a premium. No one knows much about droughts any more than they know about floods. Regardless of what any analysis may show, water supply to the county will be drastically impacted if water from streams, groundwater or reservoirs is used for cooling. That says nothing about impacts of data center heated water discharge to streams in the area.
The simple solution is cooling towers! Here is a link to just one site that discusses their use: https://spxcooling.com/applications/ data-centers/ I urge the Botetourt County officials to do the smart thing and require that cooling towers be used for any data center in the county. Oh, and require an irrevocable bond in the amount necessary to tear down the data center if it ever becomes unusable.
Thank you for this opportunity to be a good neighbor, and at no charge! BRADFORD PRICE Buena Vista
