A proposed 950,000-square-foot artificial intelligence datacenter in Imperial County has been forced back to the beginning of the approval process after a judge ruled that it must undergo a full environmental review. The review will examine effects on the power grid, water supply and emissions before construction can proceed, and could take a year or more. Developer Sebastian Rucci said he would challenge the ruling.
Rucci began pursuing the project in late 2024 on roughly 75 acres near Imperial, a desert community surrounded by farms and residential neighborhoods. The planned facility would consume about 330 megawatts of electricity—roughly the demand of a mid-sized city—and require an estimated 750,000 gallons of water a day for cooling.
Rucci initially sought to place the facility within the city of Imperial but moved to county land after city officials sought a public process. He argued that industrial zoning allowed the project to receive ministerial approval without review under California’s environmental law. County officials approved key steps, including a land-tract merger, while opponents said the process bypassed scrutiny of air quality, noise, traffic, energy demand and water use. The city of Imperial sued the county, and the Sierra Club later joined the challenge.
The proposal quickly became a community issue. He left before completing the presentation.
Water became a separate legal front. The irrigation district rejected Rucci’s request for access to Colorado River water, the district’s sole supply. He proposed buying farmland, stopping its irrigation and redirecting its existing water allocation to the datacenter, arguing that the arrangement would not create additional demand. Earlier plans to use reclaimed water from nearby cities did not produce a final agreement.
The project also became entangled in disputes over its proposed business relationships. Rucci told county officials that the facility would support Google’s Gemini artificial-intelligence systems and said he had secured the company’s interest.
Rucci has filed additional lawsuits, including a federal civil-rights case against the city and lawsuits accusing an activist, a local nonprofit and a public-media station and reporter of defamation. The defamation cases were dismissed, with appeals pending in some of them. The project now faces the environmental review sought by the city, while Rucci continues to pursue court challenges and says he intends to keep working toward construction.