San Jose AI Data Centers Spark Water Fears

San Jose is trying to make room for a new wave of data centers as city officials and PG&E line up power for large customers, including facilities tied to the AI boom. The push has triggered resistance from residents who say the city has moved too quickly and has not shown enough about water use, pollution and grid impacts. New research from Santa Clara University and the policy group Next 10 has added to those concerns by arguing that California still lacks basic transparency on how much water many data centers use. City officials say any project will still face the normal environmental review and public-hearing process. ### How big is San Jose’s buildout plan? PG&E and San Jose announced an implementation agreement on July 25, 2025, aimed at speeding power delivery for large energy users, including data centers. The city said the deal was backed by 2,000 megawatts of new transmission capacity and was designed to support a dozen major projects by 2030. April 23, 2026, brought that strategy into a City Council discussion that drew sharp public criticism. (sanjosespotlight.com) San José Spotlight reported that residents used the meeting to challenge the city’s efforts to attract roughly a dozen large energy users and connect them to the grid by the end of the decade. ### Why are residents focused on water, not just electricity? Santa Clara University researchers and Next 10 said in a May 14 report that planned data centers in California are increasingly intersecting with water-stressed areas and more vulnerable communities. (sanjoseca.gov) The report described itself as the first statewide analysis of its kind and said transparency gaps make it hard for the public to judge local impacts. (sanjosespotlight.com) UC Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment said in a February 2026 report that California still has “very little understanding” of how much water data centers use, where that use creates harm and what efficient use should look like. That report said existing reporting rules have not produced a clear picture of data-center water use and that oversight relies on a patchwork with gaps and inconsistencies. (next10.org) ### What do the statewide numbers show? Next 10 said in a November 2025 report that California data centers’ electricity use rose 95% from 2019 to 2023, while total water consumption increased 96.4% over the same period, from 25.42 billion liters to 49.91 billion liters. The group projected water demand could rise as much as 133% above 2023 levels by 2028. Shaolei Ren, a UC Riverside researcher quoted by KQED in November 2025, said researchers were working with “almost zero information” from operators. (law.berkeley.edu) That lack of disclosure has become a central point in the San Jose fight because local residents are asking for project-level numbers before more facilities are approved. ### What is City Hall saying about the review process? (next10.org) Erica Garaffo, who works in San Jose’s City Manager’s Office on large-load projects, told San José Spotlight that data-center proposals will be reviewed project by project. She said the projects do not receive pre-approval or a fast track and will be subject to environmental review, community outreach and public hearings. (kqed.org) Ellina Yin of Dreaming Collaborative told San José Spotlight that residents feel “blindsided” by how quickly the plans have advanced. Her group organized a letter-writing campaign and a petition with more than 800 signatures calling for more transparency. ### Are California lawmakers moving to tighten oversight? California lawmakers have been considering data-center rules on both environmental review and water use. inewsource reported on March 18, 2026, that lawmakers had advanced bills that would make data centers subject to the California Environmental Quality Act and seek to protect utility customers from bearing some costs. (sanjosespotlight.com) Assembly Bill 93, introduced by Assemblymember Diane Papan on January 7, 2025, addressed water resources and data centers, but LegiScan shows the measure was vetoed and the Legislature struck consideration of the veto from file on January 22, 2026. ### What happens next in San Jose? San Jose’s next steps will play out project by project through land-use review, environmental documents and public hearings, according to city officials. (inewsource.org) PG&E said in January 2026 that it had already powered the first project under the agreement, an Equinix data center in South San Jose, making the broader pipeline more immediate for residents watching the city’s next approvals. (legiscan.com) May 2026 research from Santa Clara University and Next 10 has given opponents fresh material for those hearings, and the city’s own agreement with PG&E sets a 2030 target for the dozen large-load projects now under discussion. (next10.org) (pge.com)