Apple and the environment is an association normally made with some negativity, especially concerning its data centers, however this latest move might change that. As well as building a 10,000 square foot data center in Crook County, Oregon, it has also pledged to give development funds help tap a recently discovered underground stream in the area – giving fresh, clean water to the entire city and helping it overcome the low-flow wells it already has, Slashgear reports.
Prineville City Manager Steve Forrester revealed how excited the city was about Apple’s backing and the project:
We will be converting those to production wells, with Apple’s help, and we will reimburse them over time. It’s going to really be a tremendous upgrade to the system. It will give them the water they need, and it gives us … more capacity than they are consuming. It strengthens our core system.
Hopefully this will compensate for the huge datacenters that Apple is building, which Greenpeace has criticized in the past for being dirty and not environmentally friendly. Finding and developing a new source of water will be hugely important for the city, and it has Apple, in part, to thank for it.
