Letters to the Editor: Do environmental groups targeting Colorado River water use have their priorities straight?

To the editor: Environmental groups want to limit Colorado River water going to Imperial Valley farms, saying it’s not of “beneficial” use. What is a more beneficial use of water than growing food (“Groups call on Trump administration to curb wasteful use of Colorado River water,” May 6)? In addition, no one has done more in the way of conservation on the Colorado River than Imperial Valley farmers. Since the implementation of the Quantification Settlement Agreement in 2003, they have saved over 8 million acre-feet of water with another half million-acre feet saved every year. California is also part of a three-state plan to save an additional 1.5 million acre-feet a year to help balance the Colorado River.

The groups’ particular beef is with alfalfa, a foundational crop that feeds the livestock that bring us protein-rich foods like milk, cheese, meat, yogurt, ice cream and more. In this time of global uncertainty, do we really want to limit food production?

Mike Wade, Sacramento
This writer is executive director of the California Farm Water Coalition.

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To the editor: Kudos to 10 environmental groups for petitioning the Bureau of Reclamation to stop wasting water from the Colorado River. In summary, the petition argues that the water levels of the Colorado River are dwindling due to climate change, and this trend is expected to persist and worsen. Soon, we will be experiencing the quip often attributed to Mark Twain: “Whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting over.”

But what Twain couldn’t have seen coming is the growing number of data centers using millions of gallons of our precious water. There are now 313 data centers in California, according to Data Center Map. For their cooling systems to run their cloud and internet services, hyperscale data centers operated by companies like Google, Amazon and Meta are using 200 million-plus gallons of water annually, per Dgtl Infra. Meanwhile, wholesale and retail data centers use about 6.5 million gallons annually.

To their credit, some of the hyperscalers are committed to be water positive, vowing to restore more water back to the community than they consume by 2030. But who’s going to see if they are conscientious of restoring this commodity that’s only going to be scarcer over the next five years as larger data centers for AI are being built? Will California agriculture and residents be at the short end of the water pipe?

John Boal, Burbank