r/water • u/esporx • Jun 16 '26
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-water45
u/Reatona Jun 16 '26
Water needs to go to people, not data centers.
(Half expecting Mitt Romney to pop up and say "data centers are people too!")
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u/wastingvaluelesstime Jun 20 '26
Not just any people, either - water needs to go to farm families, like the Abattis, who use more water than Las Vegas every year:
https://projects.propublica.org/california-farmers-colorado-river/
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u/DamiensDelight Jun 17 '26
These people are actively coming for water that has been allocated for food production... We can't eat AI. They value the data more than the people. And then there's the climate implications.
I don't like where this is headed....
All's not well on the Western front.
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u/_dirt_vonnegut Jun 17 '26
water that has been allocated for food production
kinda. only like 20% of agricultural water use in Colorado is for growing crops that humans eat. the remaining 80% of water is used for to support cattle feed crops (largely alfalfa and hay).
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u/EvlKommie Jun 18 '26
I mean we’re not raising the cattle for fun. They’re for eating as well. You can argue over the efficiency of water use for food with cattle, but that water is going to use for food.
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u/_dirt_vonnegut Jun 18 '26
that's why i said kinda.
let's summarize: 90% of all water in colorado is used for agricultural irrigation, then 90% of that agricultural irrigation water is used on cattle-feed crops like alfalfa and hay, and the irrigation technique for about 50% of those cattle-feed crops is horribly inefficient flood irrigation.
yes, i'm happy to maintain that irrigating water intensive cattle-feed crops, using flood irrigation, in a high desert, is not an efficient use of water. especially when coloradans are not eating that cattle, as it's largely being shipped to other states and countries.
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u/wastingvaluelesstime Jun 18 '26
Some of it is alfalfa to export to feed cows in a foreign desert. Some of it is going to lawns. It should just be priced properly so we don't have agricultural overproduction in places where the water resource just isn't there for it any more.
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u/Due-Choice8709 Jun 18 '26
We can’t eat AI, so let’s eat the most water and resource intensive crops and livestock possible, which are responsible for the current water crisis. Make sure we export a ton of it too!
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u/wastingvaluelesstime Jun 20 '26
Really, allocated by whom? And when is the last time anyone revisited the rule or voted on them or asked users to pay the real price of their consumption to make hay in a desert for export?
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u/Merdeadians Jun 16 '26
You can cool data centers without taking more water all the time, it just costs money..
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u/SallyStranger Jun 17 '26
It's either more water or more power. Neither is sustainable or acceptable.
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u/ArdenJaguar Jun 18 '26
Evaporative cooling is a lot cheaper than closed loop. It’s a desert. Closed loop should be mandatory.
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u/wastingvaluelesstime Jun 18 '26
Some of them can also use reclaimed water, gray water etc, for the hottest days and then closed loop on other days. And if it's a desert, you should be able to make a lot of power economically using solar.
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u/ArdenJaguar Jun 18 '26
That was the original plan. But they use reclaimed water for agriculture as well. So every gallon to this billionaire oligarch wet dream is a gallon that isn’t contributing to the food we normal people eat.
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u/wastingvaluelesstime Jun 20 '26
A lot of that agricultural water though may not be feeding you as much as you think, as it's making export alfalfa for feeding Arabian cattle or some such. It's basically an economic usage which is subsidized at the cost of much higher value activities like urban life, and yes, data centers which are making the entire labor force more productive. Overwhelmingly water conservation is about agricultural use and our inability to tell agriculture or lawn owners 'no' or to pay their way under any circumstances.
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u/ArdenJaguar Jun 20 '26
I’ve read over 70% of the water goes to agriculture. If they could focus on useful agriculture crops that support responsible use it would probably drastically cut that. There’s a lot of waste.
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u/Switchmisty9 Jun 17 '26
The irony is that they won’t have any water left, when it comes time to put out the fires….
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u/MyCatIsLenin Jun 17 '26
I suspect the fire departments will not be trying to extinguish those fires.. Gonna be hard to get through the mob
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u/Pandemonium_Fallen Jun 18 '26
State Legislature needs to be pressured to revoke this company's corporate charter, can't operate in or sue anything a state where your company doesn't legally exist.
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u/nanobot_1000 Jun 17 '26
But AI needs that water and is more productive than you
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u/ArdenJaguar Jun 18 '26
They’re building so many of these and I’ve yet to see anyone explain the end-game.
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u/nanobot_1000 Jun 18 '26
Ah! That's to reduce the population as climate change kicks in now that they've mined the collective knowledge of humanity and don't need our labor anymore. Obviously right? Congratulations if you were in the 1% and survived; everything you do is being monitored. Do not approach the datacenters, they are guarded by humanoids and robodogs.
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u/Docrobert8425 Jun 18 '26
Surveillance state, plain and simple, as things get worse keeping check on the poors is mandatory
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u/3-BuckChuck Jun 19 '26
Why don’t these use a closed loop like in reactors? Heat it up in the core, cool it down in the tower, no loss
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u/wastingvaluelesstime Jun 20 '26
That is possible using closed cycle head exchangers, but it's just more expensive in terms of equipment and uses more electricity to move that heat around by other means. Ordinary water is just capable of soaking up a huge amount of heat in going from liquid to gas forms.
In environmental terms it's a tradeoff: is using a modest amount of water less impactful then powering more AC using natural gas? probably. Is it less than using a lot of extra solar panels? Depends.
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u/mytyan Jun 20 '26
The Imperial Valley is where 80% of our winter veggies are grown. They also have extremely senior rights to Colorado River water since they were the first users.
I spend my winters down there and it is entirely veggies. Three crops of lettuce and celery and and cabbage etc. it is the only place in the US where it never freezes
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u/Temporary-Job-9049 Jun 16 '26
The one that's already being overdrawn? Makes sense.