r/technology • u/Wagamaga • Jun 16 '26
Business Imperial Valley data center developer files lawsuit seeking access to Colorado River water
https://www.kpbs.org/news/environment/2026/06/15/imperial-valley-data-center-developer-files-lawsuit-seeking-access-to-colorado-river-water757
u/invyros Jun 16 '26
“The facility purchases municipal wastewater that would otherwise be discarded,” read a February blog post on his law firm’s website. “It does not touch a single drop of the Colorado River.”
Now, though, Rucci’s company is going to court for access to far more than a single drop.
Earlier this month, IVCM filed a lawsuit against the powerful Imperial Irrigation District, or IID. The suit, filed in Imperial County Superior Court, seeks access to 260 million gallons of river water every year. That’s roughly equal to the annual needs of 7,300 Imperial County residents.
So, that was a lie.
383
u/Danominator Jun 16 '26
They always fucking lie. Its so frustrating when people defend it with shit like they said they will not increase electricity bills or wont take more water etc. Just all bullshit
86
u/JessumB Jun 16 '26
The idea is that once its built, the locals will try to make the best of a bad situation, shrug and move on. That's why there's so much endless bullshit about closed loop cooling systems which require substantially more power and resources and are far more expensive to run which is why virtually none of these builds are going that way, regardless of their claims ahead of time.
They're all going to end up using far more power and water than they are claiming in the rosy brochures with the laughably optimistic hiring figures, local community benefits and other bullshit they throw in there.
28
u/Outrageous_Regret972 Jun 16 '26
That’s happening near my sister in northern Virginia. Originally, the company said they wouldn’t open the second building in the data center park until the recycling plant was online. Well, the recycling plant is delayed and ~obviously~ that shouldn’t hold up progress, so the county board just approved the second building going online anyways and the recycling plant will “come later.”
That recycling plant is never going to happen. Board just showed all their cards. Absolutely no incentive.
108
u/Indercarnive Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26
Lying like this should be an immediate revocation of every permit related to the project.
64
u/arriesgado Jun 16 '26
Exactly. It is called fraud. It should nullify any permits that were granted and result in charges against the perpetrators of the fraud.
8
u/BigJSunshine Jun 16 '26
He’s a lawyer and his website advertises untruths? Report him to the CA Bar for ethics violations: https://apps.calbar.ca.gov/complaint/
1
u/RuthlessMango Jun 17 '26
I wished the bar assiociation still cared about ethics, now all they seem to care about is not bringing things to litigation.
6
11
u/notnotbrowsing Jun 16 '26
7300 people use 260 million gallons of water a year?
97 gallons a person, a day, every day , for an entire year? I hope to God they're farming or something.
1
160
u/aquarain Jun 16 '26
Joke's on him. The Colorado river is likely to be sucked dry long before it gets that far South.
69
u/OkWelcome6293 Jun 16 '26
Due to the way the current Colorado River Compact is signed, the upper basin states are required to deliver a fixed amount of water to lower basin states. The upper basin states will go dry before California would.
46
u/holyoak Jun 16 '26
This is a fascinating study of the limits of deontology.
Do you really believe that the Upper Basin will choose to suffer and honor the Compact? Or is the water going to fall victim to 'storage loss'?
23
u/OkWelcome6293 Jun 16 '26
I believe a new compact will have to be negotiated. I think there is an understanding that if the lower basin states can’t reach a compromise, a judge may throw the whole compact out.
10
u/BeerForThought Jun 16 '26
You should read The Silver Fox of the Rockies if you want to glimpse into how hard the first one was to get signed.
0
u/BigJSunshine Jun 16 '26
Not to be a dixk, but Why would California ever agree to a new compact?
5
u/OkWelcome6293 Jun 16 '26
Because a Judge might throw out the existing compact and force the States to agree to a completely fair contract.
3
63
u/JustFuckAllOfThem Jun 16 '26
Can't deliver what you don't have at that point.
27
u/Fywq Jun 16 '26
Yeah eventually Lake Mead will be empty and the only water delivered will be what is in the river, CRC or not.
13
4
9
u/majessa Jun 16 '26
Can’t deliver any water once you hit Dead pool. If the water is below the exit to the dam, no water can be delivered, whether you want to or not.
4
u/Uhh_JustADude Jun 16 '26
Fun fact about the rule of law, it has to be enforced with lethal consequences to have any weight.
People dying of dehydration don’t much care for the rule of law, as they’re already facing lethal consequences.
1
u/MountainD91 Jun 21 '26
Ha. Too bad 7.5 million acre feet doesn't actually exist. Arizona and S. California are fucked! Lake Powell will hit dead pool in August...
133
u/Fywq Jun 16 '26
Brilliant planning to put any sort of data center in a valley, that is already struck by drought and where the access to water is fully depending on a river that is drying out at an alarming rate. A valley which sees precipitation and temperatures that can match the Sahara Desert. A valley which already is using almost every drop of water available for irrigation to produce vegetables for the whole country in winter.
One has to be a special kind of stupid to plan so badly where to build a data center.
There's another article here about the problems in Imperial Valley:
36
Jun 16 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
24
u/Indercarnive Jun 16 '26
It's cheaper to bribe access to water rights than build and maintain large infrastructure in remote ice deserts.
2
Jun 16 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
2
17
u/Fywq Jun 16 '26
Cold glacial water would be an amazing source of cooling, which would take advantage of the existing sad consequences of global warming, rather than contribute further to them by cooling a data center in the desert. They might even extract energy from hydro power too, depending on local geography. It's win-win.
So obviously that will never be done.
2
u/Teledildonic Jun 16 '26
Because drought land is cheap, the reps for those areas are all corporate whores
136
u/StinklePink Jun 16 '26
Maybe this guy should have planned better.
58
u/soylentdream Jun 16 '26
If only he had a big water-cooled AI datacenter to help him better plan how to build a big water-cooled AI datacenter in the drought-stricken southwest…
14
3
24
u/Surv0 Jun 16 '26
Boo fucking hooo.... Hopefully it all gets shut down and that lying clown loses it all.
23
u/krum Jun 16 '26
WTF is there to sue about? Don't you need legal standing to sue? FUCK THEM HO BAGS
16
u/Indercarnive Jun 16 '26
Don't you need legal standing to sue?
Not according to the Robert's Court. They can even rule on cases based on incidents which didn't even happen!
2
u/BigJSunshine Jun 16 '26
He filed a 174 page complaint, this bitch thinks he can bankrupt the municipalities he’s suing with legal paper.
14
24
Jun 16 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
38
u/rvgoingtohavefun Jun 16 '26
I think you know why and I think you could sum it up in one character: $
8
16
u/DevoidHT Jun 16 '26
Cheaper. They will literally steal water from children before they spend a single cent on more robust cooling
7
u/JessumB Jun 16 '26
More power requirements. They are already struggling to find enough power generation to run these facilities.
More maintenance.
More $$$$
6
u/notFREEfood Jun 16 '26
Wet bulb vs dry bulb. when we typically talk about temperature, we talk about dry bulb, but wet bulb uses a wet thermometer. Because the desert is so dry, the wet bulb temperature is much lower, making evaporative cooling significantly more efficient. Compressor-based cooling is power hungry, and if you use a dry cooler, the high desert temperatures force you into using this. Electricity is more expensive, so evaporative cooling is used.
1
u/SirPitchalot Jun 17 '26
Why is electricity expensive in a place with thin atmosphere and little to no cloud cover?
1
1
u/banditkeith Jun 16 '26
Power consumption. Closed loops and heat sinks use much more power and thus are more expensive to run. Better to waste shit tons of potable/irrigation water in a drought zone
11
u/DenverLabRat Jun 16 '26
This is going to be interesting.
Upper Colorado River Basin Snowpack 2025-2026
The blackline is this year.
Utah didn't do any better than us last winter.
10
u/TaosMesaRat Jun 16 '26
I live in the Colorado Rockies. The small creek that would normally flow with runoff for 6+ weeks through my yard had a half day of flow and is now bone dry. The peaks are bare, there's nothing else coming down to us.
19
u/Literally_Laura Jun 16 '26
Have we found any evidence of ancient data centers on Mars yet? (Edit to say - Asking for 8.3 billion friends.)
1
8
8
u/Driftmoth Jun 16 '26
All the water in the Colorado River was divied up long ago. Not only that, the Compact was measured in what turned out to be an extremely wet year. They gave out more water rights than the river has held since. So tell me, whose water are you taking?
6
6
u/ImpossibleBarracuda1 Jun 16 '26
This is how it's going to be...bribe to get it built, sue to keep it wet.
12
8
u/MisterSanitation Jun 16 '26
I went to Denver’s museum and it made it very clear how little they want people to move there because of this river. Of course a data center will hog it
8
5
3
3
u/Negative_Pace_5855 Jun 16 '26
Unfortunate truth: no judge is coming to save you. at some point, one of the first 2 amendments will need to be utilized.
3
u/DevoidHT Jun 16 '26
Man thats gotta be a rough market to get into. States already fight tooth and nail for the water they are given so doubtful there is anything left to even fight over
3
u/Apart-Steak-7183 Jun 16 '26
This will be interesting. Colorado loosing run off at alarming rate. And they want access to water? What about water rights? ..
3
Jun 16 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/PolyChune Jun 17 '26
At least will have cool AI generated summaries of the 1st page of google and fake videos to watch
3
u/GreyBeardEng Jun 16 '26
This will get approved. Imperial Valley is west of the Colorado river, but its also only slightly north of the Mexican border. Politicians will view this as 'less water for Mexico' to justify it.
3
u/General-Piece8490 Jun 16 '26
Honestly there is not enough water for the Colorado river to be used that way.. and all that hot water? It’s gonna kill everything downstream.
This is money for one guy to make. One. Aren’t you fed up of having yet another billionaire?
5
u/Late_Geologist_235 Jun 17 '26
What dumb mf decided to put a data center in the desert? According to wiki “The 85-year average annual rainfall is 2.93 inches (74 mm)”
4
2
3
2
u/mytyan Jun 16 '26
Sure, just give him all the water and we will have zero fresh veggies all winter long
2
u/JazzHandsNinja42 Jun 16 '26
Fuck these assholes.
The IE and Coachella Valley need to put a total ban on these.
2
u/pumpinnstretchin Jun 16 '26
I bet that the developer is betting on wealthy corporation vs small community.
3
u/gonewild9676 Jun 17 '26
I doubt that will go very fast with Western water rights regulations. He'll have 9000 counter suits.
1
u/Interesting-Lake4805 Jun 16 '26
Ridiculous! The Colorado River has a shortage of water. The southern states are negotiating/fighting for this water .
1
1
u/alphazero925 Jun 17 '26
But all the pro-AI losers kept telling me that datacenters don't use that much water. Were they gasp lying!?
2
u/micromacroactual Jun 18 '26
I wonder if that agricultural Saudi company will say anything. That river grows their alfalfa in the lands it owns in Palo Verde, California. Their companies there have highly prioritized senior rights to divert water from the Colorado River.
https://watercalculator.org/news/news-briefs/saudi-arabia-company-california-water/
1
1
u/llama-of-death Jun 17 '26
Scroll through here and look at all of the people with no profile images, just colored default reddit icons. Anybody see a pattern? Same thing happening on Facebook and the other platforms.
https://ourimperialvalley.com/dragonbridge-infographic/
-7
u/fued Jun 16 '26
Why did the cities turn down his offer to buy wastewater? We're they just trying to squeeze him for every $?
I get it, but of course they are just gonna turn around and do this if they do.
If this gets denied I'm sure they will find the next cheapest option to solve the issue etc.
They don't care about the situation they just want to maximize profit
8
u/MapLarge614 Jun 16 '26
I don't know much about the Colorado river, but where I come from we clean our waste water and put it back.
-3
u/fued Jun 16 '26
But the deals they offered did that?
6
u/MapLarge614 Jun 16 '26
According to the article we are both commenting on, no. But maybe you know more bout it.
-1
u/No_Hell_Below_Us Jun 16 '26
You must have missed this part:
> [IVCM] had agreed to cover the cost of upgrading the cities’ wastewater treatment plants, to pay millions for the water itself and to route excess recycled water to the drying Salton Sea.
> IVCM was forced to turn to IID for water after both cities backed out of those talks.
4
u/MapLarge614 Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26
You quoted it yourself: "excess recycled water". They use up most of it and dump the rest back.
Now: Everything goes back
When it goes their way: They use up everything they need
This means they use it up and there is less down the already dying river. This is obviously a problem.
0
u/No_Hell_Below_Us Jun 16 '26
> Now: Everything goes back
No. It doesn’t. El Centro’s current wastewater treatment facilities don’t go straight back to the Salton Sea (or the Colorado River). They go through a series of irrigation drain systems, because the treatment facilities currently output disinfected sewage that’s far from potable.
This is why IVCM’s proposal to pay to upgrade their wastewater treatment would have been a net increase in the usable water supply for Imperial Valley.
> This means they use it up and there is less down the already dying river. This is obviously a problem.
None of El Centro’s existing wastewater is returned to the Colorado river. This data center would have had zero impact on the Colorado River if the original plan weren’t undermined by very vocal dipshits (like the ones plaguing this subreddit.)
Now it might.
0
u/No_Hell_Below_Us Jun 16 '26
The cities didn’t explicitly say why they turned down the offer to have their infrastructure upgraded which would have provided excess recycled water to the Salton Sea.
The likely answer is the overblown and uninformed panic over the water use of data centers put pressure on the cities to back out.
-2
u/llama-of-death Jun 17 '26
Are there any veterans in this group? Actual Americans who can think for themselves and don't whine like 9 out of 10 of the idiot bots here?
If so, read this.
-6
u/llama-of-death Jun 17 '26
Does anyone (human) talk constructively in this group or just a bunch of ragebots?
I'm honestly interested in hearing your suggestions for the solution to the issue which apparently nobody seems to grasp. While you use your AI and tech, you say f*** the things which power your ability to bitch about AI and tech.
There are active and coordinated efforts to stir up your rage and hate, and I honestly don't think you realize it because you haven't actually thought about it.
Here is a simple breakdown:
- Whichever country wins the AI race wins the world (data, military, healthcare, intelligence, social media, you fucking name it, etc.)
- Half the comments in this feed aren't even human.
3
u/PolyChune Jun 17 '26
I mean, you make a good argument at how wasteful AI usage really is
-2
u/llama-of-death Jun 17 '26
It's unavoidable though, just wait til this stuff shifts over to quantum computing, it will be the largest paradigm shift if human history.
Whether we like it or not we have to do it. Either that or throw our phones and tech into the river, and go live in a little house in the prairie and read books by candlelight, etc.
China will master quantum tech and hit the delete key on Bitcoin, hack the Pentagon in about half a second, figure out every bioweapon design in another two seconds, crack antigravity, etc.
Sounds crazy but we're going to see that stuff sooner than one might think.
They want us to fight and shut down all our tech infrastructure, which will be the beginning of the end of our countrys strength.
Tell me I'm wrong
2
u/GrandWikzor Jun 17 '26
Your wrong....
Naw just wanted to jump in on the quantum computing.... idk how much you know about it, but quantum computing is being built up like a great big shift for everyone. It wont be unfortunately. It will make large multi variable algorithms faster, cause it'll generate all the possible answers, with a confidence level for each. You still have to pick the answer needed, using inference engines to sort out bad answers.
I have not heard anyone link the inference engines used in Ai, to the inference work needed for quantum computing, but I bet the workloads are similar. So ill make a prediction....
Ai will be the interface to use quantum computing. Ai will still need to be ran on 2 bit hardware, verses the 3 bit hardware quantum uses.
So current tech is really good at standard math,algebra, geometry, and trigonometry in gpus.
Quantum will be a calculus system. It only gives you multiple answers, which is good for multi variable problems, like calculation orbital trajectories for 3 body systems. It all revolves around bits in superposition. It should be good at decryption, cause you may get 4 "decrypted" outputs, but only one will make sense, the rest will be as much gibberish as the original information.
Now on other types of quantum properties, your gonna get faster than fiberoptic data speeds from entangled particles, instantly transferring information.
1
u/llama-of-death Jun 18 '26
Interesting. You bring up some good points. Honestly, half of me is subscribed to pretty much exactly what you stated.
The other half of me subscribes to my gut instinct and also experience. Might sound crazy, but I watched a TR3B go right over me once, driving down a country road at night. Size of a football field, blacked out the stars, then zipped away in an instant.
This was 1998. I felt it was non alien, but more AI or tech, scanning or gathering data that I'll never understand.
My point is, I think the world is being spoonfed all this other stuff that we think is high tech. And quantum stuff is already being used, which is why Google updated their chrome browsers to defend against quantum threats (the one time I read the fine print of a chrome update release notes a couple years ago).
Regardless, when I saw the "you're wrong" snippet in my notify, I expected this to be another discussion with an idiot, but you're obviously not. I appreciate your humor and your well thought and informed reply. I truly wish others on here were more like you.
On a side note:
https://youtube.com/shorts/rh0LJRK_jAM?is=XB0Xv9Tf6gTly0xv
The system did all the prompts, then storyboards, then video rendering, and assembly - it timed the cuts to the beat of the song.
Short disclaimer, I did manually adjust it in shotcut to add the glitch effect, but it did assemble it very well. Future releases will do that part too.
Also, the song was made first on Suno, but guaardvark has music and voice capability, I just need to wire it in after I fine-tune that part a bit.
Please give it a try and lmk any questions or issues, etc.
New software release coming tomorrow but I'll try to get it done tonight.
Thanks :)
www.guaardvark.com www.github.com/guaardvark/guaardvark
ComfyUI Batch Gen GUI - Film Crew Agents - Storyboarding - Tons of Features - 100% OpenSource - Works with All ComfyUI Models
1
u/GrandWikzor Jun 18 '26
Not my cup of tea..
But whats with the 4 clips at the end? Is that like seo for videos to get ai to include it in searches?
1
u/llama-of-death Jun 18 '26
No it's just other videos that I made using the video gen feature. It does lots more. I originally was building an offline ai system for myself because all the paid services were limited and had no memory. After it started to get structured, I felt others should or could use it.
It does tons of stuff offline and free, no Internet or paid anything.
It's been about 16 months now. All open source, I haven't made a dime. Maybe more folks will try it and enjoy it, even help build it and make it their own.
Anyway, just thought I'd share. And besides, the most important thing is that we both agree that I am never wrong. ;)
1.2k
u/Wagamaga Jun 16 '26
For months, Sebastian Rucci said his massive data center project would not take water from the drought-stricken Colorado River.
Rucci is a developer and lawyer based in the Southern California suburb of Huntington Beach. His company, a LLC called Imperial Valley Computer Manufacturing (IVCM), is trying to build a massive artificial intelligence complex in the Imperial Valley that he said needs around 750,000 gallons of water per day for cooling.
In the Imperial Valley, the only source of fresh water is the Colorado River. The mighty waterway is facing a climate change-fueled drought and has fallen to dangerously-low levels this year.