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Residents press Google on reuse, emissions, rates and reporting; city to publish follow-up fact sheet
Summary
Residents asked about gray-water reuse, visible cooling-tower steam, on-site fossil generation, tax incentives and reporting under LB 1010; Google and city staff collected questions and committed to publish a fact sheet answering resident concerns.
The Resilient Lincoln roundtable dedicated much of its time to resident questions about water reuse, climate impacts and utility costs.
Garrett Swanson, the mayor’s chief communications officer who moderated the Q&A, read a series of note-card questions. One attendee began the public portion by emphasizing drought conditions: "We are in a 10 year drought. Hallam is drill is drilling deeper. Lincoln requires a 2nd, water source…Why use potable water? Do you use gray water?" Anthony Giovannoni said reuse is being explored and that "it's not something that we wouldn't necessarily look at into the future," noting the Lincoln facility has an allocation for reuse but that establishing a local gray-water distribution system would require separate municipal infrastructure.
On emissions and on-site generation, a resident referenced reporting in a national newspaper and asked what Google is doing about CO2 from planned natural-gas generation. Chris Matos responded that interim procurement includes additional renewable and carbon-free resources and that the company is exploring technology-agnostic solutions, including carbon capture, while working toward an hourly-matched 24/7 carbon-free energy goal.
Other resident questions addressed staffing (Jake estimated "a couple hundred individuals" on-site for operations), the percentage of Lincoln’s water the site will use (city staff estimated up to 6% at full buildout), and tax incentives (city staff said none had been provided). On the topic of reporting, attendees referenced LB 1010; Trent said Google is evaluating how to supply required numbers to the state and is working to meet the deadline.
Organizers said they will compile note-card questions and publish a fact sheet on the city website by the end of the month to answer questions that could not be fully addressed during the session.
