Data centers in Imperial County, California: 1 project mapped

Imagery: Esri, Maxar

The Imperial Data Center, a nearly 1-million-square-foot, 330-megawatt AI campus planned next to the Victoria Ranch neighborhood near the city of Imperial, is stopped for now. On September 9, 2026, Superior Court Judge Brooks Anderholt overturned the county's April approval of the site and ordered a full environmental review, in lawsuits brought by the city of Imperial and the Sierra Club. Developer Sebastian Rucci, of Imperial Valley Computer Manufacturing, says he will seek a new trial and, failing that, appeal.

The county has also paused all data centers on county land until mid-2027. Rucci sued over that too, and in August a second judge, Jeffrey Jones, issued a tentative ruling that the county had not shown "the current and immediate threat required" for an emergency moratorium; that ruling was not yet final. "They can't just come in and claim that they're exempt and have a right to build the biggest data center in the state without any oversight," said state Sen. Steve Padilla.

Water is the other fight. Rucci once promised the project would not "touch a single drop" of the Colorado River, but after Imperial and El Centro backed out of recycled-water talks, his company sued the Imperial Irrigation District in June for 260 million gallons of river water a year, about what 7,300 residents use. On September 15 the district, which also supplies the valley's power, adopted rules that make big users such as data centers pay for their own grid upgrades and put them first in line for power cuts during peak demand.

Every project above is drawn from public records, filings and local reporting. Each row links to what it is based on. Statuses change, so check the source date before you rely on one. Found something wrong? Write to [email protected] and it gets fixed.