By admin 
Data centers have the public appeal of a communicable disease right now. They are opposed by 70% of Americans according to a recent Gallup poll.
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These facilities—which house computer systems, servers, storage drives and other equipment to power artificial intelligence—are big water guzzlers sparking protests across California and America.
But what if I told you it makes all the sense in the world to locate data centers here in Sacramento. In fact, it’s surprising that there aren’t more data centers in Sacramento already.
Thanks to the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, Sacramento has some of the cheapest electricity in California. And thanks to city forefathers, Sacramento has laid claim to more water than these centers could ever use.
In fact, Sacramento could risk losing water rights it has long claimed. Using more water is the tried-and-true way to preserve those rights.
“You have probably heard the term ‘use it or lose it,’” said Jim Peifer, executive director of the Sacramento-based Regional Water Authority. When it comes to California water rights, “it really is true.”
Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty has asked his staff to review the policy implications of new data centers as the city prepares for what could be the region’s largest proposed data center. But those implications should already be clear to him.
The huge electricity demand of a data center would not be an issue for the city of Sacramento. It would be the responsibility of SMUD.
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The city is responsible for providing the water for residents and businesses within its boundaries, and the proliferation of data centers is happening just as Sacramento gets closer to a 2030 deadline to justify its claims for water that it mostly isn’t applying to any beneficial use.
In accepted the city’s applications to use up to 550,000 acre-feet of water annually from the American River. Back then, the board set the Dec. 1, 2030, deadline for the city to put all this water to beneficial use. In 1920, Sacramento also laid claim to 81,000 acre-feet of water on the Sacramento River.
That’s roughly 630,000 acre-feet of water rights for a city that is now using just a sixth of that amount. Sacramento currently uses less than 100,000 acre-feet of water a year. By putting more water to a beneficial use, “you have a water supply in the future that you can do something with,” Peifer said.
Yet as in all things water, it’s not quite this simple. If Sacramento expands its water use, it means less water from Folsom and Shasta dams for farmers on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. That might cause problems for the operator of these dams, the federal Bureau of Reclamation, which still has considerable power over local water agencies.
Why does that matter? The Sacramento region may eventually seek to divert extra river water in wet years to replenish groundwater basins and prepare for longer droughts due to climate change. But it would need the bureau’s OK. If Sacramento uses more water now and makes it harder for the bureau to supply downstream users, don’t expect the agency to do the city any favors.
There are many reasons to dislike data centers. They’re big. They can be noisy. Yet Sacramento has more water rights than the city knows what to do with. Our region would need to find another justification to build these knowledge factories elsewhere.
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