Rucci reportedly indicated that the project would provide substantial economic benefits for the local community, including 1,688 construction jobs, more than 100 permanent positions, and an estimated $2.95 billion in economic impact over 30 years. For a region where unemployment stood at approximately 17% in May, the economic diversification is essential. However, the big question is whether 100 permanent roles could offset the lost positions in the farming industry and industries tied to agriculture.
Water policy specialists interviewed by Business Insider said that the debate extends beyond the project's annual consumption. Instead, they questioned whether converting irrigated farmland into industrial use is an appropriate long-term direction for the region, which has historically depended on farming. The experts also warned that although landowners could benefit from selling land or water rights, surrounding rural communities may lose employment and business activity adjacent to agriculture, which includes equipment suppliers, repair shops, and sellers of fertilizers. Another factor mentioned by the experts was the U.S. reliance on farms around Imperial, California, and Yuma, Arizona, as they were the main suppliers of certain agricultural products in winter.
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Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom\u2019s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends. ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-25/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Anton Shilov Social Links Navigation Contributing Writer Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.
Kindaian The jobs are not real, as they will be mostly remote and outsourced to outside of USA. With luck, you get like 10 jobs… of people to just go to the cabinets replace cables, blades and disks. Reply
usertests Kindaian said: The jobs are not real, as they will be mostly remote and outsourced to outside of USA. With luck, you get like 10 jobs… of people to just go to the cabinets replace cables, blades and disks. Hmm, can we replace those with humanoid robots? Reply
StoneAssassin115 I'm wondering why they can't use the wastewater they said they'd use. Can't they sue for that instead? And about the loss of farmland, not only would there be lost jobs, whatever they are growing will cause a loss to the agriculture industry and increase costs to bring food in from further away. Reply
friedmeg Kindaian said: The jobs are not real, as they will be mostly remote and outsourced to outside of USA. With luck, you get like 10 jobs… of people to just go to the cabinets replace cables, blades and disks. You really think a $10 billion facility would only create 10 full time jobs? There will easily be 100+ full time jobs (most of which will be high paying), and there is already data out there that supports that. How many full time jobs do you think a 150 acre alfalfa field that produces $200,000 of product per year can support? Reply
Arkitekt78 They aren't entitled to anything. They think its theirs just because they want it. They don't provide any value back- not jobs, not viable product… tell em to pound sand. Reply
friedmeg StoneAssassin115 said: I'm wondering why they can't use the wastewater they said they'd use. Can't they sue for that instead? And about the loss of farmland, not only would there be lost jobs, whatever they are growing will cause a loss to the agriculture industry and increase costs to bring food in from further away. The cities arent allowing it as of now because it is politically unpopular to support data centers. The lost jobs issue is a nonstarter as a 150 acre alfalfa field supports maybe one or 2 full time jobs and the data center supports closer to 100. 150 acres represents .1% of all alfalfa acreage in the Imperial Valley so not much concern regarding loss to ag industry. 90% of that alfalfa is exported anyways. Reply
friedmeg Arkitekt78 said: They aren't entitled to anything. They think its theirs just because they want it. They don't provide any value back- not jobs, not viable product… tell em to pound sand. You think a $10 billion data center would provide fewer jobs than a $1 Million 150-acre farm field? Reply
Kindaian friedmeg said: You really think a $10 billion facility would only create 10 full time jobs? There will easily be 100+ full time jobs (most of which will be high paying), and there is already data out there that supports that. How many full time jobs do you think a 150 acre alfalfa field that produces $200,000 of product per year can support? Most of the jobs will be remote. The 10 people hired will be low paid workers with training on just do the security/support requirements. The high paid jobs will not be there in the DC itself. I've seen DCs running with only 3 people permanently on the rota (security, maintenance and engineering low grade). That's about it. The remaining people worked remotely with visits to the DC from time to time only (very rarely and only when the equipment refused to work via remote access). Reply
CelicaGT friedmeg said: The cities arent allowing it as of now because it is politically unpopular to support data centers. The lost jobs issue is a nonstarter as a 150 acre alfalfa field supports maybe one or 2 full time jobs and the data center supports closer to 100. 150 acres represents .1% of all alfalfa acreage in the Imperial Valley so not much concern regarding loss to ag industry. 90% of that alfalfa is exported anyways. Few of those jobs would go to locals. They likely lack the required education and skillset. This facility brings pretty much nil benefits to the community. I'd suggest reading the linked article, it provides a title more context. This is less about jobs and more about money and politics….on both sides of the argument. (edit: phrasing) Reply
Kindaian friedmeg said: You think a $10 billion data center would provide fewer jobs than a $1 Million 150-acre farm field? Yes. There are quite a few examples of mega projects with huge foreseen local employment numbers that never materialized. So what credibility do they have for people to believe that those jobs will materialize? Are they warrantying them? With financial penalties if they don't materialize? Like returning all the tax breaks they will get? Reply
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- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/californias-largest-ai-data-center-project-suing-for-access-to-287-million-gallons-of-colorado-river-water-0-03-percent-of-imperial-valleys-supply-plaintiffs-claim-project-equivalent-to-160-acre-farm-amidst-about-jobs-and-reallocation-of-farmland#main
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