You are now in California and the U.S. Media Coverage category.

As artificial intelligence fuels a new wave of data center development across California, lawmakers are grappling with how to support the growing industry while protecting the state’s limited water supplies.

Two bills moving through the Legislature would give state and local officials a more complete picture of data centers’ water demands. AB 2469 would require developers to disclose projected water use before local governments approve new facilities, while AB 2619 would require operators to report actual water use annually once the facilities open.

 

In an effort to address the historic-low water level at Lake Mead, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Tuesday approved an agreement with the federal government to help add water to the reservoir.

On Tuesday, Metropolitan’s Board of Directors approved an agreement with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which will provide the agency up to $65 million to keep up to 200,000 acre-feet of its Colorado River supplies in the lake this year.

On July 9, the Trump administration delivered a gift to Cadiz Inc., a politically well-connected firm that has been trying for decades to win approval for a scheme to pump water out of the Mojave Desert and market it to water agencies across the Southland.

The administration approved the company’s application to convert an abandoned 220-mile oil and gas pipeline crossing the desert to carry water instead. Susan Kennedy, the chief executive of Cadiz, called the approval “a pivotal milestone” that would enable the project to move into its construction stage.

A new watershed resilience plan released by the Regional Water Authority and regional partners examines how climate change could affect water supplies

It wasn’t that long ago that drought dominated the West.

From 2014 to 2017 and again from 2021 to 2023, record after record was broken as clear skies and relentless sunshine became the norm. The governor’s office initiated statewide prohibitions on “wasteful water use,” mandating that cities, towns, and urban water suppliers reduce their potable water consumption by 25 percent. Central Valley farms received 8.7 million acre-feet less surface water than in a normal year, forcing growers to pump groundwater to keep permanent crops alive.