HomeMy WebLinkAbout08 17 2026 - Item 8.1 - Kelly Larsen1
Stefan Mercer
From:Kelly Larsen <kslarsen1@yahoo.com>
Sent:Sunday, August 16, 2026 5:42 PM
To:Public Comments
Subject:EXTERNAL - Council Meeting 8/17/2026 agenda items 8.1 and 9.2
There are already over 90 data centers in Santa Clara County. The City keeps claiming that Amazon won't use
very much of our water. However, current studies claim that data centers are under estimating what they will
use, and actually use more than what they say. How can we hold Amazon accountable on water drawn if no one
is tracking it? On Valley Water's website (Data Centers and Santa Clara County's Water Supply | Santa Clara
Valley Water) they state and I quote "We do not have exact water-use figures or numbers for individual data
centers because we supply water to local water retailers, not directly to homes or businesses. To Valley Water's
knowledge, water retailers do not track data centers as a separate customer category, so this information is not
available." AB 2619 which would force data centers to report how much water they actually use may not make
it to the ballot in November (AB 2619: Water resources: data centers).
Council Member Zack Hilton wrote in a comment of Facebook regarding an official City post on the data center
water use:
"Currently they process 8.5 million gallons per day and will increase that to 11 million gallons per day. That
equates to accommodating a Gilroy population to about 108,000 residents. The City of Gilroy Utilities
Department has not reported or presented to City Council that we are in any water shortage or stressed water
supply. Valley Water hasn’t either." -
So during the last drought years when we were told to cut our water use and only water two days a week during
certain times of day and report run-off, we didn't need to? Even though we are technically not in a drought, we
received less than the average rainfall the last two years in a row and we take more out of our aquifers than we
recharge (it takes 100s of years to recharge). So who will have to cut back and conserve water when the next
drought comes, because it will. Climate change is real and water doesn't magically just appear just because the
facilities are capable of serving a population over 100,000. Water is sacred. Water is scarce. Water is life. Use
what we have to better the people here, not some stupid cloud servers no one asked for or wants.
Thank you
Kelly Larsen
Sources below:
Data centers are guzzling California’s water. We have no idea how much.
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2
Data centers are guzzling California’s water. We have
no idea how much.
Rachel Becker
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