• An Imperial County judge has tentatively ordered a full environmental review before work proceeds on IVCM's proposed 330MW data centre
  • The review would cover the data centre together with its substation, battery storage, natural-gas generation, cooling and water infrastructure

The fact

Imperial County Superior Court Judge L. Brooks Anderholt has tentatively ruled that Imperial County must set aside key approvals for Imperial Valley Computer Manufacturing's proposed 330MW data centre and carry out a full environmental review. The judge found that the county improperly treated project approvals as ministerial and relied on a 2017 environmental review that did not assess the development now proposed. If the ruling becomes final, the county would have to prepare an Environmental Impact Report under the California Environmental Quality Act before allowing grading, construction or other physical development to proceed.

The project is planned on about 75 acres near Aten and Clark roads in Imperial County. Plans include an approximately 950,000-square-foot data centre with a 330MW load, a 330MW substation, an 862MWh battery system, cooling and water-treatment facilities, four 500,000-gallon water tanks and 330MW of emergency generation using 132 natural-gas generators. California records show that the county had treated a 2025 grading permit as exempt from CEQA because it considered the action ministerial.

The assessment

Imperial County had allowed the project to begin grading without a full environmental review of the data centre itself. Anderholt's tentative ruling would change that. Before work can continue, the county would have to review the data centre together with its substation, batteries, generators, cooling systems and water infrastructure.

That review would now come before the next stage of construction. It could delay the project or require changes to parts of the design, but the judge has not rejected the data centre. For BTW readers, the main question is what happens to IVCM's construction schedule. If the ruling becomes final, grading and construction would have to wait until the environmental review is completed and any new requirements are addressed.

What to watch

Watch whether the tentative ruling becomes final and when Imperial County starts the Environmental Impact Report. The review's treatment of the 330MW substation, 862MWh battery system, natural-gas generators and water infrastructure will show whether the project can proceed largely as designed or needs changes before construction.