Data Centre Giant Unable to Rule Out Presence of Chemicals in Wastewater Discharge
Australian data centre giant AirTrunk wasn’t able to rule out the presence of chemicals in the wastewater it discharges from its Lane Cove facility in Sydney.
TL;DR
- AirTrunk could not rule out the presence of chemicals in its wastewater discharge from the Lane Cove facility.
- The company's vice president of market expansion, Tom McKellar, gave evidence to the Environment and Communications References Committee.
- McKellar confirmed no PFAS were found but could not confirm the absence of other chemicals in wastewater.
- The inquiry is examining the construction of data centres in Australia.
- Other data centre operators like NextDC and Macquarie Data Centres employ different cooling systems, with immersion cooling linked to PFAS use.
- There is a regulatory gap regarding data centres and PFAS monitoring in New South Wales.
- Australia is preparing for significant data centre expansion, with major tech companies investing billions.
- Questions were raised about AirTrunk's economic benefits and corporate tax contributions.
- Senator David Pocock criticized the low tax contributions of multinational tech companies operating in Australia.