S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman on today's show. A proposal to put a data center in Imperial County raises red flags , will tell you all about the environmental concerns and more. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. Controversial plans for a $10 billion data center in Imperial County are flaming tensions within the community. The center would use immense amounts of energy and water , but the developer is openly trying to avoid California's environmental review process. So joining me to talk about his latest investigation is Corey Suzuki. He covers the South Bay and Imperial Valley for KPBS. Corey , welcome.
S2: Hi , Jade. Thanks for having me.
S1: Glad to have you here. Some very interesting reporting. Um , this data center would be one of the largest in California.
S2: So there are sort of right now these kind of large concentrations of this type of infrastructure across the country. But data centers are now looking. Data center developers are now looking to more rural areas where land is more affordable , where they hope to face less opposition to these projects. I spoke with Kara Bunder. She's a policy analyst at the Data Center Coalition , which is an industry group , and she said that this is happening more frequently , just that as developers are looking for more places to build these facilities. This is kind of what's happening. And Imperial County as a whole , it is a very large power producer , especially when it comes to California's county. So that is , I think , a large reason that this developer behind this project has , has looked here because it's one of the few places in this state that could deliver this kind of power. Interesting.
S1: Interesting. So tell me. Talk to me a bit about , you know , what's fueling demand for data centers like these ? Yeah.
S2: Well , recently , these facilities have become sort of an essential part of the push to expand generative AI. The the technology that we've all come to know so well in the last few years , programs like ChatGPT and Claude and these , these computing programs that can do all of these , all of these , the act in these different ways and perform all of these different tasks and require immense , immense amounts of computing power to fuel them , to fuel both their development and their operations. And so these major tech companies that are looking to expand their use of AI and to develop these programs further , they are looking for more and more places to put data centers , which are essentially giant warehouses full of computing equipment. They're looking for places where they can build larger data centers , where they can build more of them. And they're looking to places like the Imperial Valley. Mhm.
S1: Mhm. And going off script here a little bit I mean does does the lithium there play any role on this.
S2: You know it's a good question. Um there is sort of a component of this where like you mentioned , you know , Imperial County for the last few years has been the site of a lot of discussion around these large reserves of dissolved lithium that scientists have found , um , deep beneath the Salton Sea in these kind of underground wells of water. And part of the process for extracting that lithium , the process that that major energy firms have at least proposed to extract that lithium is by essentially retrofitting existing geothermal plants. So while a lot of the focus has been on the technology itself , the mineral which could be used is used in a lot of electric car batteries and other battery technologies. Um , the fact is that , um , that extraction that industry would create , um , well , while producing lithium would also be creating a large amount potentially of geothermal power. So some of the energy firms that are exploring lithium production in the region have said that they are interested in producing also large amounts of power. Um , one of them has said that they're considering potentially producing it for directly and selling it directly to , um , AI companies. So that's something that I think at least one of these companies has said , these , these , um , separate , um , lithium , uh , or energy companies that are exploring them , lithium exploring lithium extraction have discussed or are thinking about. Um , but it's. I think it's a little early to say , I guess , um , what exactly that connection will look like , since , you know , lithium development in the region is still very much emerging to not has not actually begun yet.
S1: Interesting , interesting. Um , well , you know , it's safe to say that many people are not happy about this proposed data center in Imperial County. What are their concerns ? Yeah.
S2: That's right. And I think at the top of the list for a lot of people are a lot of just really questions about what this facility is going to mean for the Imperial Valley's water and power supply and air. Number one , I mean , power. This project would need an incredible amount of power. It would also potentially need a large amount of water every day. The power this is , you know , to run the these computer chips that would be inside this facility. And then the water would be , um , essentially used as part of the facility's cooling system to keep all of these chips cool , and the Imperial Valley as a whole , while on one hand could seem , and in many ways does have a large amounts of both of these resources. The Imperial Valley is one of the largest producers of renewable energy in California. Like we talked about earlier , and farmers in the Imperial Valley have some of the longest standing claims to water from the Colorado River. So , you know , from one perspective , the Imperial Valley has a lot of both of these resources. But at the same time , when you live in the Imperial Valley , access to those resources can really vary widely. Many people , especially in the more rural parts of the county , live with frequent outages often during the summer and access to clean water , too. And the price of it can depend widely on where you live to and what the local municipal infrastructure to clean that water looks like. So and as we know , also the Colorado River is not doing so well these days , is really buckling under the weight of ongoing droughts and climate change. So this is really a place where there is a lot of there is a lot of stress. You know , one of the one of the people that I spoke to for this story was Katie Olivas. She's a 22 year old substitute teacher and a community organizer who lives in the city of Imperial. Here's a little bit of what she had to say.
S3: We suffer from climate change already. In our summers , we reach more than 120. Our people are struggling to pay their water bills that just went up this year. Our people are struggling to pay their energy bills.
S2: And just to add on to what Katya is saying there , I mean , I think the one thing that has really stood out about this project , to many people who are hearing about it now , is that the developer behind this data center has , like you said earlier , tried to design it in a way that would avoid California's environmental review process. So many of these questions that people have about what kind of a footprint the project would have are still , at this point , just that. Questions. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. And this is where you introduce us to Sebastian Rucci. Rucci. Rucci. Rucci. Yeah. And who is he and what reasons did he actually give for trying to avoid this , this process of environmental review ? Right.
S2: Well , Sebastian Rucci is a businessman and a lawyer who is based in Huntington Beach. He lives here in Southern California. He actually lives in closer to Palm Desert , which is in the Coachella Valley. But he's his office is in Huntington Beach in Orange County. And Rucci has been working on this data center project for over a year now with some colleagues. And Rucci says that their entire goal for this project is speed. Getting this data center up and running as fast as possible. And this is partly because to hear him tell it , these AI companies are in a race to improve their technologies faster than their competitors. Here's a here's a clip from our conversation of Ruchi talking about this.
S4: Look , data centers , right now , as you and I speak , there are national urgency , right ? I mean , it's not me creating it. Our president has filed executive orders that says it's for national priority , and we need them because we feel the country that there's a competition with China.
S1: So let's talk more about Ruchi. You reported that he's faced his own controversies. What did you find there ? Yeah.
S2: And you know , first I should say that Ruchi and the the company working on his company , the company working on this data center project , do say that they would take steps to make the project more environmentally friendly that they would , for example , number one , use reclaimed water , recycled municipal water for the project , and that by by taking that step , they would pay for the infrastructure for local cities to two local cities to recycle enough water that they would be able to meet the data centers needs , and would also produce much more recycled water than the data center would actually use , and that they would propose to release that remainder of cleaned recycled water into the Salton Sea. So he says that that would be an environmental benefit from some perspective that the data center would provide. And then Rucci has also said that they would take other steps to , to to be more environmentally friendly as well , using natural gas generators as a backup system , for example , instead of instead of dirtier diesel generators at the same time. They're. The local officials in Imperial County have raised some doubts , some some questions about some of these promises. Um , first of all , local officials in two cities , Imperial and El Centro , which are the cities that Rucci says he would get this water from and where he would pay for these infrastructure upgrades , Rucci has said , or , I'm sorry , these local officials have said that they well , they've discussed , um , the idea of , uh , providing water to the data center. They haven't agreed to this yet. They haven't signed anything. So that's sort of one , um , one point that local officials have pushed back on. And then secondarily , uh , the city of Imperial has sued over this project , has argued that the county , which is the deciding agency on this development is not adhering a closely enough to state law and that in fact , this a project of this scale and with certain certain elements does need to go through the environmental review process. Um , whereas this the , the county and the developer disagree. At this moment , Rucci has actually filed a lawsuit , a sort of countersuit against the city of Imperial , claiming that they are engaging in a campaign to sabotage the data center. So there are really , really a lot of questions there. Sure.
S1: Sure.
S2: Um , and the Planning Commission in Imperial County heard this , this lot merger. They , they voted on this lot merger um , already and the they they were unable to to move it forward. And so they voted to delay and to hold more workshops with the public and to essentially put a pause , have a discussion. But , um , where things stand now is that Ruchi , the developer , has appealed that , um , that decision to the Board of Supervisors. So in the coming weeks , this decision is set to come before the Imperial County Board of Supervisors , and then we'll see. I mean , it'll be a public discussion , but on a narrow slice of the project. And so that'll be the sort of next thing that happens.
S1:
S2: Feels like there are a lot of open questions and , um , doesn't feel like I think many people just feel like they they have not gotten a lot of straight answers.
S1: All right. Well , I know you're going to continue to cover this , and we'll we'll continue to follow your reporting. I've been speaking with Corey Suzuki. He covers the South Bay and Imperial Valley for KPBS. And you can find his full investigation at pbs.org. Corey , as always , thank you so much.
S2: Thank you. Jade.
S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
