ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Water use has been a consistent concern for people worried about the growth of data centers.<\/p>\n
With two data centers now proposed in Allentown, the Lehigh County Authority is speaking out about how it would handle the demand.<\/p>\n
At the LCA, about 26 million gallons of water flow through the system each day to customers across the region.<\/p>\n
Taylor Stakes, the authority\u2019s director of communications and strategic partnerships, said engineers prefer to pull water from the Little Lehigh Creek because it is easier to process.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut in times of drought, you can see right now it\u2019s pretty low, even though it is flowing,\u201d Stakes said.<\/p>\n
The LCA is currently in a drought warning status and has asked customers to conserve water.<\/p>\n
Stakes said that request is meant to ease stress on the system because lower water levels make the water harder to filter and clean.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s almost a catch-22,\u201d Stakes said. \u201cHow can we ask people to conserve water in a drought when also we see new development coming into the region?\u201d<\/p>\n
For the Lehigh County Authority, that new development could include providing water for data centers.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re not going to see a data center come to Allentown if LCA can\u2019t provide that water,\u201d Stakes said. \u201cIt\u2019s not going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lehigh County Authority started in 1928 and uses a variety of water sources, including the Little Lehigh.<\/p>\n
Stakes said the system is currently moving about 26 million gallons of water a day, roughly half of what flowed through the system during the 1960s and 1970s, when the area had a heavier manufacturing base.<\/p>\n
She said some existing facilities already use 1 million to 2 million gallons of water per day, which is much more than what a proposed data center would use.<\/p>\n
Asked about the overall health of the LCA\u2019s water supply, Stakes said it is strong.<\/p>\n
\u201cExcellent,\u201d she said. \u201cThere is plenty of water.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stakes said the drought conservation request is not because the system is running out of water, but because conserving helps reduce stress when water levels are low and harder to treat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Water use has been a consistent concern for people worried about the growth of data…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[214,119,121,120,232],"class_list":["post-270137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-allentown-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}