by Laure De Tymowski 

“Asking certain questions means not asking other questions” 

My proposed contribution to the Counter Data Lab is to assess the socio-environmental water governance impact of semiconductor production in Ireland. I will do so by taking as a case study the Intel’s semiconductor fabrication plant in Leixlip, County Kildare. 

This first post is to briefly explain why I’m looking at what I’m looking at. As argued by Mary O’Brien, choosing a research topic and research questions over others is always a socially situated process and has important socio-environmental implications. 

“Once you are a scientist, which means as soon as you systematically ask questions about the universe, you take a political side. There are infinite questions that you could ask about the universe, but as only one scientist, you must necessarily choose to ask only certain questions. Asking certain questions means not asking other questions, and this decision has implications for society, for the environment, and for the future. The decision to ask any question, therefore, is necessarily a value-laden, social, political decision as well as a scientific decision.” (Mary O’Brien) 

As researchers, choosing our research topic and research questions can be achieved in many ways: for instance, it can be done through reading academic papers describing the current state of the art or in consultation with stakeholders such as industry partners, state actors and/or local communities. No matter how we come to make them, these decisions are always influenced by a wide range of factors: the institution we work within, our (potential) funders but also centrally our lived experience and social positioning such as our class, race, gender and so on. 

“It is an interesting exercise to examine the questions you are pursuing as a scientist. Who wants me to be looking at certain kinds of questions, and why? Whose questions am I ignoring? Who is being hurt on Earth, and whom am I trying to save? The murrelet? Mink in the Columbia River? Asthmatic children in inner cities? Mexican workers in border-town factories? The forests? The ozone layer? Farm workers? Groundwater? Biodiversity? No one?” (Mary O’Brien) 

Calling out the many institutional and political pressures faced by researchers when deciding on their research agenda, Tom Slater argues that “the moment that we cannot ask our own [research] questions (…) what we are doing ceases to be research and becomes propaganda”. 

While the objective of this short post is not to provide an in-depth genealogy of my choice of research topic and research questions, I deem it important to be explicit at least about their situatedness. Anyone should feel confident questioning researchers about the whys and hows of their research focus and research questions. There is no self-evident research focus and research questions. 

Now, why looking at semiconductor production, water and Intel? 

To start with, the research topic is in line with one of my main personal research interests: socio-environmental inequities linked to water infrastructure governance. Additionally, it is in line with the counter data lab’s main research objective: assessing the socio-environmental impacts of the ever-expanding ICT industry in an AI boom context. In other words, my research focus rationale draws on both personal interests and the overall objective of our research lab. In a last move, it was put to the test of some initial exploratory desk-based research described in what follows. 

Taking a closer look at the semiconductor industry, it is a highly water-intensive industry. In a context of increased climate-change-induced water scarcity, assessing such a water use from a social and environmental equity perspective becomes a matter of urgency. While Ireland might be seen as a well water-resourced country, Irish Water argue that “there is already a serious shortfall in the water supply for the Greater Dublin Area and surrounding regions” which “puts 1.7 million people at risk of water shortages”. Access to water infrastructure is already highly uneven with “over 1000 households in the Metro (Dublin) area without piped running water”. Furthermore, large-scale, costly water infrastructure projects are being increasingly contested and legally challenged. 

In such a context, assessing the impact of Intel’s semiconductor activity, the most water-intensive industrial activity in Ireland, becomes highly relevant. In 2022/2023, for instance, Intel’s monthly water usage was equivalent to the monthly water usage of over 96,000 households. Compared with some data centre water usage estimates, it scores very high: in 2023, the three Meta data centres located in Clonee consumed in one year the amount of water consumed by Intel in a month.  

Thus, the proposed research is to assess the impact of Intel’s water usage on local and wider water infrastructure governance since the start of its operation in Leixlip in 1989. It will explore the topic from a wide range of perspectives: 

• Intel: what strategies have been developed by the company over the years for improved sustainable water management? 
• Local communities: what are the benefits and limitations of Intel’s activity for local and wider water infrastructure management? 
• Water management institutions: what are the benefits and limitations of Intel’s activity for local and wider water infrastructure management? 
• Other water infrastructure management and semiconductor industry experts: other perspectives on the research and research questions? 

If you have any feedback on the proposed research or would like to participate/collaborate, please get in touch anytime at detymowl@tcd.ie !