Within ten days, two Imperial County Superior Court judges issued tentative decisions pointing in opposite directions on the proposed Imperial Valley Data Center, a 950,000-square-foot computing complex near the city of Imperial that would be the largest in California.
On Aug. 21, Judge Jeffrey B. Jones tentatively found that the county had not established the “current and immediate threat” to public health, safety or welfare that state law requires for an emergency moratorium, and ordered the county to set aside and stop enforcing the two ordinances that had paused new data centers until June 2027. The ruling did not approve the project or settle which zoning rules apply to it.
On Aug. 31, Judge L. Brooks Anderholt tentatively ruled the other way on a separate case brought by the city of Imperial and the Sierra Club. He found the county “prejudicially abused its discretion” by approving a lot merger for the project without first completing review under the California Environmental Quality Act, and identified power demand, water supply, drainage, battery storage and a bank of natural gas backup generators as effects the county should have evaluated. He also appeared to accept the plaintiffs’ argument that the county had approved the project in pieces rather than as a whole. Both decisions remain tentative; the parties may contest them in the coming weeks. The developer, Imperial Valley Computer Manufacturing, said it would seek a hearing. County officials said they plan to introduce a revised moratorium.
The water piece is separate and still open. The company holds a lease on 160 acres of farmland next to the site and has told the court it would fallow that ground and shift its Colorado River allocation — about 880 acre-feet a year — to cooling. The Imperial Irrigation District denied the request on May 1 and the company sued in June. Nothing in either August ruling resolves that claim.
The same district is now working out how much of California’s 440,000 acre-foot annual Colorado River cut will land on Imperial Valley farms. Producers and markets in the county are listed on the Imperial County page; the winter vegetables grown there reach certified farmers markets across Southern California.
Why this matters for SoCal: Imperial County grows a large share of the winter vegetables Southern California eats, and this is the first test of whether a non-farm buyer can convert leased farmland into an industrial water right in the valley.
Update, Sept. 22, 2026: Judge Anderholt’s tentative decision is now final — he overturned the county’s approval on Sept. 9 and ordered full environmental review. Separately, Newsom has since signed seven data center laws, including SB 887.
Sources: Judge preparing to halt massive Imperial County data center, order environmental review — KPBS, Sept. 1, 2026; Data center water fight heads to Imperial County court — Western Water, Aug. 4, 2026