Public Comment Needed: Oppose Exemption for 2.5 Million Gallon Water Tank, Likely for Data Center
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The City of Industry is pulling from their usual playbook again -- they are fast-tracking the construction of a 2.5 million gallon water tank by calling it exempt from California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review.
Earlier this week, we learned that there is an application for a 99MW AI data center at the California Country Club golf course, and also an application to construct a 2.5 million gallon water tank just up the street. And the City of Industry's Planning Commission is going to meet (and presumably approve) this water tank proposal on November 10th at 11:30 am, just 11 days after posting a public notice. (Good thing PHCPA volunteers were keeping an eye on City of Industry!)
This feels really suspicious to me that there's a water-hungry data center proposed, and a couple miles up the road, they're going to increase the water company's total storage capacity to 7.5 million gallons -- that's a 50% increase in capacity!
Allowing a project of this size and impact to proceed without any sort of environmental review is not just completely ridiculous—it’s a direct violation of state law.
PHCPA has already submitted a public comment to the City of Industry and its Planning Commission, objecting to the CEQA exemption. We need your help to amplify the objection by sending an email of your own. I've made it really easy to voice your opposition -- just use the one-click email below:
https://actionstartslocal.org/template/ceqa-exemption-objection-coi-water-tank
Don't forget to select your city and sign your name. Please send your one-click email by Monday, November 9th.
The water tank application claims that the tank is to support maintenance of an existing tank while not interrupting water service. But after the maintenance is complete, the tank remains and permanently increases water storage capacity. This is a classic strategy of disguising upgrades as "maintenance". I used to work at an oil refinery with lots of large tanks, and there are plenty of options to have temporary storage while a tank is taken offline for cleaning. I should know -- I was the engineer for the "tank farm."
The application also claims that this upgrade (wait, you just said it was for maintenance?) is to maintain compliance with firefighting water flow requirements. But nowhere in the documents does it show that current water flow performance is unsatisfactory. Again, another disguise of "mysterious compliance" to mask a permanent upgrade.
With two (2) known data center proposals in the city, trying to quietly upgrade the water infrastructure in a vacuum without acknowledging the increasing industrial need for water in the immediate vicinity is called "piecemealing", and it's illegal.
If you're able to attend the Planning Commission's hearing on November 10th to make a spoken public comment, please reply to this email to coordinate talking points. We can provide a script for you.
Thank you for your continued support!
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