California Data Center Suing for 287 Million Gallons of Colorado River Water Annually

A data center needs 287 million gallons of water per year for cooling. The legal team compared this to a 160-acre farm to make the number sound smaller. A farm of that size uses roughly 80 million gallons annually. The comparison reduces a technological fact into an agricultural metaphor. The metaphor is false. The filing went through.

Comparing water consumption to farming is now standard practice in southwestern infrastructure litigation. It makes the number inhabitable. It makes the number live on a pastoral landscape rather than inside a building full of servers. Everyone does this. Judges read the comparison and see rows of crops instead of rows of processors.

The Colorado River will lose the water. The suit will succeed or fail. Either way the water leaves. The river is not a party to these proceedings and has never been consulted about anything.