Across the United States, a debate is building over the rush to build massive data centers as major tech companies seek to dramatically expand their artificial intelligence capabilities — and more communities push back over the environmental cost.
Now, that debate has come to the Imperial Valley.
For close to two months, controversy has been building over a one-million-square-foot data center complex planned near residential neighborhoods that are in the small city of Imperial.
The facility could consume almost double the amount of electricity that all of Imperial County used in 2024, according to state data and estimates shared by the project’s developer. It could also need about 750,000 gallons of water per day.
The project’s developers are pitching it as an economic boom for the county, a majority-Latino region where jobs are hard to come by. They also say they will take steps to reduce the project’s environmental footprint, including by using recycled water.
But many Imperial County residents fear it will strain the rural valley’s power grid and water supply with little benefit for the people who live here.
Here are four takeaways from a KPBS investigation into the project:
1. Intentionally avoiding environmental review
The project’s developer, Huntington Beach-based entrepreneur and lawyer Sebastian Rucci, is openly seeking to avoid the environmental review process laid out in the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
CEQA requires state and local governments to study the possible environmental effects of development projects and get public input.
To avoid those requirements, Rucci aimed to design a ministerial project — a planning term that essentially means local officials have no option to deny it as long as the technical requirements are met. Under state law, ministerial projects are typically exempt from environmental reviews.
“The demand has increased exponentially,” Rucci told KPBS last month, referring to the clamor for computing power. “Our whole goal is speed.”
Rucci maintains that his company will take significant steps to reduce the data center’s impact on Imperial County’s water, air and energy.
2. A businessman with a turbulent past
Across the country in Ohio, Rucci’s previous business ventures have left a trail of criminal investigations and legal complaints.
In 2010, local county prosecutors charged Rucci and several other people with money laundering, promoting prostitution and perjury related to a nightclub which he owned in the Ohio city of Youngstown, state court records show.
The charges were eventually thrown out, some because the case took too long to go to trial.
Afterwards, Rucci started California Palms, a treatment center for drug addiction. Ohio health officials inspected the center, and a 2021 report found staff had broken various healthcare protocols. That same year, the treatment center was raided by the FBI. State health officials also revoked its certification.
Federal officials never charged Rucci or the treatment center with any crimes. Rucci sued the government for the confiscated funds, which they eventually returned with interest. He is currently seeking copies of the warrants in an ongoing legal case, and recently won in an appeal.
Between both businesses, Rucci was only ever convicted of one charge: selling beer at the club with an expired license in 2014. He served 30 days in jail.
In interviews, the entrepreneur called these investigations “politically-motivated” and said he was unfairly singled out by local officials in Ohio. Rucci also disputed the 2021 report on the treatment center, saying that it was one-sided.
He added that the treatment center provided a significant amount of free care to military veterans.
3. Costs for Imperial County residents unclear
Utility officials did not have many answers about how the planned data center might affect the price of energy for Imperial County residents.
The Imperial Irrigation District (IID), the region’s main energy provider, said they did not yet have a roadmap for charging such a large customer.
“At a minimum, IID is pursuing a framework that is ratepayer neutral, and where feasible, one that helps reduce the burden on existing ratepayers for needed system upgrades,” spokesperson Robert Schettler told KPBS late last month.
When data centers come to town, utilities often need to make expensive upgrades to handle the increased load, a cost that they can pass on to consumers. An analysis last year by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and North Carolina State University found that data centers could increase the average cost of producing electricity by 8% nationwide.
In Imperial County, it’s also currently unclear where the data center will get its water.
Last month, Rucci told KPBS he had reached an agreement to buy a total of 6 million gallons of reclaimed water daily from the cities of El Centro and Imperial — and that his company would pay for the necessary infrastructure upgrades. The data center itself, Rucci said, would use an eighth of that amount. The remainder, he said, they would release into the drying Salton Sea.
El Centro and Imperial officials both said they had discussed the possibility of providing reclaimed water but denied formally agreeing to it.
4. County officials powering ahead
Imperial County officials, however, seem to believe the project will survive the increasing scrutiny.
In their view, Imperial County Planning and Development Services Director Jim Minnick said, they had just one public approval remaining before the developers could effectively begin construction.
“From a land-use perspective, there is no other requirement,” Minnick told KPBS last month.
The approval Minnick was referring to was a vote by the Imperial County Planning Commission on a “lot merger,” a request by the company to join together five parcels into one 75-acre plot of land. The commission held a first vote on the lot merger on Dec. 18, but it failed to pass.
Rucci has appealed their decision, which means the vote is now set to come before the Imperial County Board of Supervisors in the coming weeks.
