California will soon have more than 300 data centers. Where will they get their water?

The new data center proposed for a quiet city about 115 miles east of San Diego came across people’s radars in different ways. For patrons of the deli on West Aten Road, it was the white “Not In My Backyard” signs jutting out of lawns.   For local irrigation district workers, it was something called an “electric service application.”  For Margie Padilla, it was a rant on Facebook. The 43-year-old mom came across a post online while she had a few minutes to scan social media last spring after a day spent tending her garden and taking care of her two boys. “Somebody was complaining about this center,” Padilla said. “I was like, ‘Whoa, what’s going on here?’”  What’s going on is the second-largest new data center being considered statewide, which would be less than half a mile from Padilla’s stucco home in the center of Imperial Valley. If finished by 2028, as the developer expects, the at least 950,000-square-foot, two-story data center could be the largest operating statewide, taking up 17 football fields’ worth of land.  The roughly $10 billion, 330-megawatt data center would require 750,000 gallons of water a day to operate, said developer Sebastian Rucci, who insists electricity and water costs won’t rise due to the data center.  The proposed 330-megawatt data center in Imperial, Calif., is slated to take up 17 football fields of land and needs 750,000 gallons of water a day. Courtesy of Sebastian Rucci “We have studies on the air. We have studies on the water.…

Continue reading →