These residents in Georgia next to a Meta (Facebook) data center have had their tap waters run dry. The voiceover in this NYTimes article includes an opening narrative by the article author, and he remarks that the woman he interviewed said she tried to sell her house but there are NO buyers because of the data center. In other words, her property value is zero.
The New York Times – Their Water Taps Ran Dry When Meta Built Next Door In the race to develop artificial intelligence, tech giants are building data centers that guzzle up water. That has led to problems for people who live nearby. By Eli Tan Visuals by Dustin Chambers Reporting from Newton County, Ga. Published July 14, 2025 Updated July 16, 2025 Yet water is a particularly difficult resource to manage. If a municipality needs to add energy capacity to its grid, it can build new solar farms, wind turbines or reopen coal and nuclear power plants. But the water used by Newton County comes from a nearby reservoir that can be replenished with only rainwater. Because electricity is more costly for data centers than water, companies often prioritize building their facilities in places with cheap power, even if the area is drought stricken. That has exacerbated water shortages across the world, Ms. Ajami said. “Water is an afterthought” for tech companies, she said. “The thinking is, ‘Someone will figure that out later.’”
I found the gift link to this article posted by someone on social media, but if that doesn’t work there’s also an archived version.
My letter to reps:
The author of the New York Times article “Their Water Taps Ran Dry When Meta Built Next Door” added more to his article in the voiceover reading of the article. And he said that people living next to the Meta (Facebook) data center in Georgia told him they tried to sell their house but there were no buyers. So this means property values go to ZERO next to data centers. So why do you want to force these data centers into our community? Do you want us to need to flee the homes we care about, but at the same time trapped in houses without running water and unable to move or afford to go anywhere else? This is unacceptable. Politicians need to stop pushing this.
Please feel free to copy or repurpose for your own letters to reps.