Fresno D1 supervisor runoff: Karbassi, Pacheco say no to AI data centers over water

Key Takeaways

Fresno Bee fact check finds both D1 supervisor candidates oppose AI data centers over water concerns.
Fresno City Council voted to pursue a 10-year moratorium on data centers inside city limits.
Tulare County extended its data center moratorium by 10 months and 15 days.
Fresno County ag value hit $8.589 billion in 2023, per the county crop report.

Mike Karbassi went first. He said the county should not trade scarce water for racks of servers, and he tied it right back to fields and small towns. Then Maria Pacheco, the Kerman mayor headed to a November runoff with Karbassi for the Fresno County District 1 supervisor seat, said her reading of the room is simple: people in her district don’t want AI data centers, so she doesn’t either.

That’s the crux of a Fresno Bee fact check published this week. It matters because any data center water would come from the same pool growers depend on, and the same systems that still struggle to deliver safe, reliable drinking water in parts of the Valley.

What the Bee asked

The Bee pressed the runoff pair on a now-familiar question: do AI data centers belong in Fresno County. Karbassi pointed to water first, saying, "We don’t have enough water for our farms," and named westside towns like Kerman and San Joaquin that still wrestle with contaminants. Pacheco said she’s hearing a clear "no" from residents and will carry that forward if she wins in November.

It was 91 degrees in Kerman at noon on Monday. The point lands a little harder when you feel that heat on a block wall.

Where city and county rules stand

Inside city limits, the Fresno City Council voted unanimously to move a 10‑year moratorium into the development code. City staff have also said data centers aren’t a defined or permitted land use right now, which means they’re not coming through the door anyway. There’s still process left before the ban is final. Tulare County, watching the same drought-to-flood-to-hot cycle, extended a pause on data centers in unincorporated areas by ten months and fifteen days.

The county Board of Supervisors hasn’t set a blanket policy specific to data centers, and that’s why a district race becomes the proxy fight. Land use, water, return per acre, it all meets there. Not this water year.

Why growers are watching the water

Growers don’t buy servers, they buy certainty. That means a clean allocation, plus power that doesn’t spike at harvest, plus a path for towns to keep their systems whole. Fresno County’s 2023 crop report lists $8.589 billion in gross value across more than 300 commodities, led by grapes, almond, and pistachios. That number is only possible when water shows up on time and of the right quality.

Almond checks are still sensitive to reliability. USDA NASS pegs the 2024 average almond price at $2.14 per pound, and the growers I talk to say a shaky pump test or a mid‑summer outage can burn that margin fast. A chilled server hall that needs steady cooling water, even if it’s reclaimed or in a closed loop, draws from the same finite web of sources and pipes that feed blocks, drip lines, and schools.

Karbassi framed it as first protecting farms and communities that already struggle to meet safe‑water standards. Pacheco said her stance follows what she’s hearing on the westside. "If they say no, it’s a no."

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.

Source

https://www.fresnobee.com/news/politics-government/election/local-election/article317355269.html