Imperial Valley Computer Manufacturing has filed a lawsuit in a bid to gain access to Colorado River water, 287 million gallons of which it says it needs to cool a 330-megawatt data center, which would be the largest in the state. Despite only representing a fraction of the region's water supply, the buildout of the data center may affect the local farming and adjacent industries and terminate hundreds, if not thousands, of positions, reports Business Insider.
After two cities in the region denied the California-based AI data center recycled wastewater for cooling, it filed a lawsuit demanding to get water from the Colorado River for cooling. The 330-megawatt facility was not only designed to be the biggest AI data center in California, but it specifically committed not to use water from the Colorado River because it was promised wastewater. But now the owner of the data center is essentially asking to redirect water supply from agriculture to the facility.Imperial Valley Computer Manufacturing — the owner of the 330 MW AI data center — is requesting access to approximately 287 million gallons of water per year after two cities — El Centro and Imperial — declined to supply reclaimed wastewater for cooling. The Imperial Irrigation District (IID), which distributes Colorado River water throughout Imperial Valley, also denied the company's request. The Colorado River supplies water to roughly 40 million people across seven western states and serves as the valley's sole freshwater source for roughly 180,000 people. Agriculture consumes about 80% of California's allocation from the river, while roughly 95–97% of the water IID delivers goes to agriculture.
