Jobs Today, Thirst Tomorrow: Why Data Centers Around Lake Michigan Are a Bad Bet
- Charles "Ghost" Coutts
- 18 minutes ago
- 4 min read
(Opinion, Public Interest) For informational and educational purposes only. It's just something to think about.
I live on the western shore of Lake Michigan, in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, so this subject is hitting close to home. This article applies far beyond just the shores of Lake Michigan, though. For months now, I have watched as proposals for data centers have been appearing around the lake like vultures. One has already been built south of me, another is planned even closer to the north, and a third is eyeing land just outside my town. People across the nation are experiencing a similar invasion, with tech companies promoting the same tired narrative that has historically led to the decline of many cities and towns. Consider the boom towns of the 1800s: mining companies or the railroad would come in, promising jobs and prosperity. But when the profits dwindled or routes were redrawn, they would leave, leaving the town with little more than a large hole in the ground or a whole lot of debt and no future. What began as short-term gains often resulted in long-term suffering for people who didn't make the decisions leading to that suffering.
This situation has a modern twist, but the basic scenario remains the same. Data centers are unlikely to go away; they will only continue to expand, consuming more and more fresh water and demanding increasing amounts of electricity. The best analogy I can think of for a data center is a big, bloated tick on an old hound dog's ear. They will never let go unless they are removed or die of natural causes. They will keep feeding and growing larger, relentlessly seeking more to satisfy their insatiable needs.
They all desire the same resource: our fresh water. While this isn't the only thing they seek, it ranks highest after tax incentives, inexpensive land, and legal protections offered by avaricious state and local governments. Every day, billions of gallons of our fresh drinking water are consumed to cool the server racks fueling the AI surge. But, aren't we facing an imminent freshwater crisis? More on that later.
The sales pitch never changes: “Jobs!” Jobs are always the hook that gets the people reeled in. It seems we would have learned by now, but that is another issue I talk about quite often in other pieces I have written.
Here’s the way this scenario usually plays out: The jobs available are primarily temporary construction positions and a limited number of technician roles, which will soon be replaced by automation. Once the ribbon is cut and the servers are operational, human involvement will largely diminish, leaving only the necessary maintenance and security tasks that require minimal personnel. What remains is a windowless, humming, ever-growing monstrosity that operates continuously, does not pay local taxes proportionate to the resources it consumes, and continuously draws on our water supply while putting a strain on our power grid.
The higher electricity rates that follow? We’ll still be paying them long after the last local hire has been automated out of a paycheck.
We’ve seen this movie many times before. Every time a governing body chases instant gratification—cheap energy, quick profits, “progress at any cost”—the bill comes due decades later. We have no idea what these facilities will do to the lake’s ecology, to our groundwater, or to the regional power supply twenty or fifty years from now, when they have grown to 3, 5, 10 times their original size. Yet the attitude from the people pushing it is always the same: “Let’s just do it and deal with any consequences as they come up.”
That is not a strategy. That is rolling the dice with someone else’s future. Or, in a more common phrase, playing politics with other people's lives.
Our children and grandchildren did not sign up to inherit depleted or contaminated aquifers, unreliable electricity, or a Great Lake that has been turned into an industrial heat sink. We do not get to kick this can down the road and then shrug when they ask why the water tastes funny and makes them sick or why the lights flicker in July. The heat goes out in the winter.
Responsible stewardship involves rejecting short-term benefits that are likely to turn into long-term problems for others, particularly when these issues affect one of the Midwest's most significant freshwater resources.
If you reside near a large freshwater body or river—such as Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, the Finger Lakes, or any aquifer that might attract Big Tech's interest—be vigilant. They will approach with promises of jobs and economic growth. Initially, they will fulfill these promises. However, once they no longer need to maintain good relations, they withdraw, leaving the community to handle the consequences. Corporations have been adept at this strategy for a long time. (Note: PBS couldn't help but politicize the issue, though the video highlights the inconsistency and contradiction of claiming to protect the environment, fresh water, and future generations while simultaneously exacerbating the supposed problem.) It doesn't quite add up, does it?
Get informed. Show up at the planning meetings. Ask meaningful questions that require solid answers. Don't allow them to deflect or change the subject. Demand answers! Write to your local officials. Make noise. Because once those buildings are poured and the pipes are laid, they are not going away. The water they take will never come back, and the power they demand will just keep climbing.
This isn’t NIMBYism. This is basic math, basic morality, and a whole lot of common sense.
We only get one Lake Michigan. We do not get a do-over once it’s turned from a fresh drinking water reservoir into the world’s largest server cooling tower reservoir.
I say, no, sir. Not here. Not now. Not ever. Our priority should be ensuring that future generations have access to fresh drinking water, rather than focusing on cooling rows of servers for AI development, which, considering human nature, might eventually be used against us.
Ever heard the saying, "Give them an inch, and they will take a mile"? If we give these data centers an inch, they and the tech they support are likely to take the whole damn thing. Know what I mean?
A deeper look. Predictions? Prophecy?
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