The State : S.F. Computer Wastes Water

San Francisco, rationing water for the first time in a decade, continues to waste 12 million gallons a year--and perhaps triple that amount--with an outdated, 22-year-old city computer cooling system. City Hall’s computer system is cooled with 98,000 gallons of water flushed daily through four huge air conditioners. But, unlike most other cooling systems, the water at City Hall is used for only one pass instead of being recycled. “It’s a significant amount of water,” said Vitaly Troyan, chief of the Bureau of Engineering. “It was designed as a once-through system years ago, but in light of the drought, we can’t do that anymore.”