This study is using water "withdrawal" figures rather than consumptive use. Hydroelectric plants withdraw tons of water, but it goes right back into the river it came from.
> “Hydroelectric plants withdraw tons of water, but it goes right back into the river it came from.”
The consequences to communities of hydroelectric dams are known to most communities, discoverable. And they don’t go into any place you want to put them. You don’t buy farms in farming communities next to the highway, and change the landscape.
It seems like data centers are a blind choice to some communities.
And as for the water, cooling water discharge is disastrous for trout fisheries. There was a big fight over a “25 football fields” warehouse near a class a trout stream in NY. No cooling water, but much concern about everything else that might effect this natural resource. (Heiden Road Warehouse Project proposed by Kroeger USA, LLC). Not a lot of communities have such a vocal, informed, and energized environmentally conscious community as you find with trout anglers. I have concern for those bass masters.
In the case of pump storage schemes like Loch Awe in Scotland, it goes from a dam up top to a loch at the bottom, and then later on it goes back up to the top when it's cheap enough to do so.
Edit - good information on this here: https://news.bgov.com/environment-and-energy/data-centers-us...
The "Consumptive Use vs. Withdrawals" section discusses the trouble with using withdrawal as a meaningful data point.