US data centers tripled water use to 17 billion gallons

I checked recently and the numbers that surprised me: Golf courses use +500 billion. Municipal water leaks +2500.

I keep reading/hearing reports about how data center water usage isn't actually that big an issue overall (though it certainly can be in certain drought-prone or water-scarce regions). The fact that it continues to be an issue that gets focus (vs, say, the explosion in natural gas and even coal power use) is interesting.