Experts tell Valley growers: demand water numbers from AI data centers
At a Thursday webinar, panelists urged Central Valley boards and residents to require clear water-use details, cooling plans, and no NDAs from AI data center developers.
Experts tell Valley growers: demand water numbers from AI data centers
Key Takeaways
- An Aug. 27 Agri-Pulse webinar warned rural boards about AI data center water use.
- Loudoun County’s Mike Turner said data centers use about 10% of his county’s potable water.
- Proposed edge-node centers at Tulare and Kings fairgrounds would use closed-loop cooling without municipal hookups, the developer says.
- Panelists urged local officials not to sign NDAs with developers.
What experts said Thursday
"Ask for the gallons, every year." Mike Turner didn’t dress it up. The Loudoun County, Va., supervisor told a Valley audience Thursday that AI data centers can put a dent in local supplies if communities don’t pin developers down in writing early. He said centers in his county account for roughly a tenth of potable water use. That number traveled fast on the Zoom call.
Turner’s list was short: require specific annual water volumes, get the cooling design in plain English, find out if the source is recycled or potable, and ask how the outfit will treat wastewater. He added one more. Don’t sign non-disclosure agreements with data center companies. "The public is demanding transparency," he said.
It was hot in the Valley this week. The thermometer on my dash read 82 at noon.
Where Valley projects stand
Two edge-node AI proposals on Central Valley fairgrounds, one in Tulare County and one in Kings County, have drawn early opposition. The units are the size of a shipping container. The developer, Global Stack USA, says they would run closed-loop cooling and wouldn’t tap a city or community water system. The fair boards haven’t scheduled votes, and staff said the items won’t come back for months.
That timeline matters for growers watching allocations and thinking through next year’s cuts. If a project shows up on an agenda, Turner said, the first document to ask for is a clear accounting of how the cooling system charges, how often it needs make-up water, and what line it comes from. Hard questions first.
What boards and growers can ask
Panelists steered local boards toward conditions that can be written into permits. Require a closed-loop system for any new build. Require metering with quarterly public reports. Require recycled water where feasible, and spell out how heat and noise will be managed on site. If a developer balks, Turner said, that’s useful information before anyone starts trenching a line.
For growers, the homework looks familiar. Check which agency controls the water a project would use, then read that agency’s supply outlook and constraints. If it’s a district well field or a municipal plant that also serves ag users, push for priority language to protect ag deliveries in dry years. Ask for a decommissioning plan and bond so the county isn’t left with orphaned hardware.
One more note from the call stuck with me. Air cooling works for traditional centers, but AI racks run hotter, which pushes more projects toward water-based systems. That’s the fork in the road for Valley boards. If a project isn’t truly closed-loop, you’ll feel it when July hits.
"We would not allow a data center in this modern environment that wasn’t on a closed-loop water system," Turner said.
Central Valley AI is produced by the CVAI Newsdesk team and developed by Kaweah Tech, a regional firm that builds, deploys, and integrates AI solutions for businesses across California's Central Valley.