Crawling public records for evidence of data centers being built is common. Another thing you can do is use public records of utility use. It is tough to get the amount of power used in public records, but water use is not considered as confidential. Well, until Salt Lake Tribune reported on the water use of NSA’s Utah Data center.
NSA paying for water it’s not using at Utah Data CenterRecords » It could be evidence the data center in Bluffdale is not operating at anticipated capacity.By Nate Carlisle
| The Salt Lake Tribune
First Published Apr 28 2014 03:10 pm • Last Updated Apr 29 2014 07:30 amThe National Security Agency’s Utah Data Center has been paying for water it’s leaving in the tap.
A review of the data center’s recently released water bill shows that since at least July, the NSA has been paying its mandatory minimum bill. In July, the NSA paid Bluffdale $28,596 for 6.2 million gallons of water.
There are rumors there are problems in the electrical systems in the data center which limit the power used.
The water bill is further evidence the Utah Data Center is not operating at anticipated capacity. The Wall Street Journal reported in October the facility was suffering from electrical problems, delaying full-scale operation. The NSA has refused to discuss the status of the Utah Data Center, even to say if it’s operational.
We’ll see what the water use is in July 2014 for get a year to year usage.