Water

The whole truth about water. Ryan Co. and Google report the data center will use up to 152,000 gallons of water per day for “typical office/light industrial domestic purposes” and that this is comparable to a residential development the same acreage. They also claim there will be 100 permanent jobs. How do 100 people use 152,000 gallons of water every day for domestic purposes? They are not being transparent. Also 152,000 gallons/day brings Pine Island nearly to our limit of appropriated water; therefore, any increase in population and water need will require Pine Island to get a new water permit from the DNR. On top of that, Rochester is anticipating a water shortage by 2031 and have already been denied a new water permit from the DNR and both cities use the same aquifer.

Ryan Co. and Google state they will use a closed-loop chilled water system that “completely eliminates the need for a constant supply of fresh water.” But this is what they haven’t told you. Per Google reps, it will require 1.5 million gallons of water to fill the closed loop system and this system has frequent leaks. When leaks occur, they need to be repaired by draining the area and refilling it. They also have not reported that the closed-loop system is not just filled with water but also chemicals including nitrites, glycol, and PFAS to prevent pipe degradation and biological growth. When a leak happens and the system is drained, the chemicals are drained as well into our wastewater treatment plant, and we do not have confirmation that the treatment plant can clean out the chemicals and prevent them from entering the Zumbro river. Finally, there is an upstream water impact. A closed-loop system has increased electricity demands, which means the power plants will use more water to produce the electricity. That water use is just pushed onto a different entity (power plant) and Google can claim they are using less water.

Energy

The whole truth about energy. Ryan Co. and Google chose land in Pine Island which is conveniently located in close proximity to the North Rochester Substation located on the northern edge of Pine Island right off of Highway 52. Full build out of the Google hyper scale AI data center will use 2700 MW of energy. For perspective, the city of Rochester uses about 291 MW. To draw this amount of energy, the current substation will need to be doubled in size and 765 kV electrical towers will need to be built and connected to the substation. These massive towers and power lines, not used anywhere else in MN, will surround our small town of Pine Island. Now, to be fair, Google said they would pay for infrastructure they would need for their energy. They plan to pay for the power lines running directly from the North Rochester Substation to their mini-substations on site and then connect directly to their data center buildings. What they don’t tell you is that the tax payer (all of us) will be paying for the infrastructure needed for the new 765kV lines running across southern Minnesota and north to our substation, and doubling of the current substation size, which will be an increase in your electric bill. They brag about the use of a BESS (Battery energy storage systems) as clean energy storage for the data center, but fail to mention it is the biggest battery project in the world and has inherent risks of fires and chemical spills putting more demand on our fire department and environment. They have also failed to mention the 50MW diesel generators they now say will be needed for backup energy on site, but we don’t know how many will be needed, how often they will run, or how much air pollution they will create. Finally, they claim to be using clean energy but fail to mention it will not be used for the data center, it will just be added to the grid. Also, to reach that goal it is estimated to require 81,000-162,000 acres of wind development or 13,500-20,250 acres of solar development.