They killed the plan to save the Salton Sea — then sued to stop it. Get the facts →

The Salton Sea Betrayal — Water Facts

You've heard it: "The data center is draining the Colorado River." Here is the documented record the headlines leave out — including the part where local officials killed a privately-funded plan to use recycled water and help the dying Salton Sea. Every claim on this page links to an independent source. Where a claim comes from a court filing, we label it an allegation.

~0.03%
of IID's Colorado River entitlement
~880
acre-feet/yr requested
Last resort
the developer's own word for river water
The cities
backed out of the recycled-water plan

What actually happened

1

The plan: recycled water, not the river

The project was designed to run on recycled municipal wastewater — funding upgrades to the cities' treatment plants, paying millions for the water, and routing the clean excess toward the dying Salton Sea.

2

The betrayal: the cities backed out

The cities of Imperial and El Centro withdrew from the arrangement. With recycled water no longer available, the project had to find another source.

3

The last resort: river water

Only then did the company ask the Imperial Irrigation District for river water — describing it, in its own lawsuit, as a "last resort."

4

The twist

The same officials who helped kill the clean-water plan now attack the project for needing the river it was built to avoid.

The water math

The data center's request~880 acre-feet/yr
IID's Colorado River entitlement3,100,000 acre-feet/yr
≈ 0.03%

That's about three one-hundredths of one percent of the largest entitlement on the Colorado River — and less water than the 160-acre farm the project would replace (alfalfa uses roughly 5–6.5 acre-feet per acre). The developer's plan to offset its use by fallowing that farm is a legal argument currently being litigated.

Quick facts

~880 acre-feet — about 0.03%

The requested water is a fraction of IID's 3.1 million acre-foot Colorado River entitlement, and less than the farm it replaces.

Designed for recycled water + the Salton Sea

The original plan funded city treatment upgrades and sent excess clean water toward the Salton Sea — until the cities withdrew.

Your power bill is protected

IID's own Large Load Tariff requires big users (over 20 MW) to fund their own grid upgrades — the developer pays, not residents.

862 MWh battery + interruptible power

The campus can be cut from the grid first during a heatwave, and its battery can help steady the IID system.

A geothermal future pre-commercial

Dedicated behind-the-meter geothermal nearby (CTR + Baker Hughes) could take the project off the public grid entirely.

Five emergencies, one pause

The county moved to extend five local states of emergency — including three failing bridges — in the same meeting it moved to pause the project that helps pay for them.

The bottom line

Know the facts. Share them.

Before repeating “he’s draining the river,” ask who killed the clean-water plan. The full story is documented — and sourced.

Read the full story →

Sources

  • Recycled-water plan, Salton Sea, "last resort," ~880 acre-feet / ~0.03%: KPBS, June 15, 2026.
  • Five states of emergency & the moratorium, same meeting: Imperial Valley Press, June 16, 2026.
  • Large Load Tariff (over 20 MW fund their own upgrades): The Desert Review / Imperial Irrigation District.
  • Behind-the-meter geothermal: Controlled Thermal Resources & Baker Hughes (Sept 2025); "American Data Power" (Feb 2026).

An independent publication dedicated to facts. We do not speak for the developer. Claims drawn from court filings are labeled as allegations, and we do not publish figures we cannot source. The "water-neutral / fallowing offset" point is the developer's legal argument, currently being litigated — not stated here as settled fact. Found an error? Tell us and we will correct it.