Oregon city drops fight to keep Google water use privateResidents of The Dalles, Oregon, are learning how much of their water Google’s data centers have been using to cool the computers inside the cavernous buildings — information that previously was deemed a trade secret.A lawsuit by the city on behalf of Google — against Oregon’s biggest newspaper, The Oregonian/OregonLive — that sought to keep the water-use information confidential was dropped, the newspaper reported Thursday.“It is one example of the importance of transparency, which we are aiming to increase ... which includes site-level water usage numbers for all our U.S. data center sites, including The Dalles,” Google spokesperson Devon Smiley said.The snowpack in the nearby Cascade Range that feeds the aquifers varies wildly year-to-year and glaciers are melting.Even the town councilors themselves had to wait until a couple of weeks before the vote to find out the projected usage numbers."