By: Restore the Delta
The explosion of Artificial Intelligent (AI) across the country isn’t happening in a vacuum but instead goes hand-in-hand with impacts to water resources and utility bills. Despite the enormous strain on both our electrical grid and finite water resources, California has established little to no regulatory oversight. In fact, last year, Governor Newsom rejected legislation that would have provided some oversight, stating that the legislation would potentially curtail “the very innovation that fuels advancement in favor of the public good”. As Asm. Papan’s AI Bill package on AI water use – AB 2619 and AB 2469 – moves through the legislature, the question remains whether Governor Newsom will again reject efforts to establish oversight and transparency.
These protective measures are more necessary than ever. According to a recent Fortune article, 49,000 Lake Tahoe residents are scrambling to find a new power source because their utility company is redirecting electricity capacity to data centers powering the AI boom. Technology over people is happening in real time, with little to slow the onslaught of impacts.
The Delta, at the heart of California’s water system, is another prime target for the development of AI. To assess the impacts to our ecosystems and communities, Restore the Delta released our new white paper, The Environmental Justice Implications of Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta.
Even before the release of our White Paper, AI was making waves in the Delta. When we began this work, possible data center locations in Oakley were being discussed. In March 2026, the Bridgehead Industrial Project, a 164-acre site near the San Joaquin River, originally included data center use before the developer pulled it after significant public pushback. The following month, Oakley became the first Bay Area city to impose a temporary moratorium on new data centers, buying time to study the industry’s energy and water demands.
Just to the north, California Forever’s proposed Suisun City annexation plan has raised alarms that its zoning would allow data centers across nearly all land designations without meaningful public review, despite being marketed primarily as a housing and jobs project.
The Delta is already under extraordinary pressure. The watershed is severely overallocated, numerous native fish populations are in steep decline, and South Stockton and Kings Beach carry some of the highest pollution burdens in the state. AI is yet another existential threat, endangering the long-term viability of the Delta.
A typical 100 megawatt data center consumes approximately 2 million liters of water per day, the equivalent use of about 6,500 households. Unlike residential water use, roughly 80% of that water is lost to evaporation rather than returned to local water systems. Data centers also require uninterrupted 24/7 power, making them unable to reduce usage during peak demand, the exact moments when our grid is most stressed.
The situation in Lake Tahoe illustrates what happens when planning lags behind development. The energy supplier for that region told the local utility it has less than a year to find another power source. The Delta faces a version of that same complexity, multiplied by competing demands from the Delta Conveyance tunnel, carbon storage projects, and new urban development. California is still in the early stages of creating policies specifically designed to address AI infrastructure’s water consumption, constant energy demand, and cumulative community health impacts.
The window to shape these decisions is right now, before large scale AI development becomes entrenched in the region. We want policymakers, Tribal Nations, environmental justice advocates, and Delta communities to understand the implications of widescale AI development in order to ask the important questions before permits are approved. Oversight and transparency must catch up to development if we are to adequately protect ecosystems and communities.
Read the full white paper at restorethedelta.org.
