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Workgroup adds water-capacity checks and considers drought-curtailment plans for data centers
Summary
Committee supported requiring documentation of water capacity and suggested caps/monitoring and possibly a drought-stage curtailment plan; members recommended consulting utilities on feasible thresholds and allowing LOAs or utility commitments as interim evidence.
Members discussed water as a central gating item for data-center feasibility. Staff member said the draft will require that applicants document municipal water connection and certify peak and emergency cooling demands, and that developers not reallocate an approved water allocation to later phases without reapplying: "You can't, like, take your water capacity and apply it to another phase... phase 2, you gotta start over with your application," the staff member said.
The group debated adding statutory volume caps and daily/hourly thresholds in code but leaned toward asking the utility for data and negotiating specific caps during the application review. Committee members proposed that utilities or the independent consultant determine practicable thresholds and that a drought-stage curtailment plan could be required or at least encouraged in coordination with the utility.
