MEETING NOTES: Desert groundwater agency hears overwhelming opposition to proposed desert data center

Meeting: Indian WellsValley Groundwater Authority board of directors
Date: May 13, 2026
Agenda and Packet: CLICK HERE

The Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority’s May 13 meeting was flooded with comments from the public asking the authority to oppose a recently proposed artificial intelligence data center in Inyokern being promoted by R&L Capital, Inc. 

Judy Decker began public comment urging the groundwater authority board to put the AI center on their agenda as a regularly updated time. She also expressed fear that the developer would go before the California Energy Commission for approval and bypass local agencies. 

Audience member Renee Westa-Lusk echoed Decker’s concerns and asked the board to look into AB 2469, which would limit such centers in critically overdrafted subbasins and require greater disclosure of their anticipated water use.

“It is like nobody can seem to stop this, and my worst fears are we won’t be able to do anything,” Westa-Lusk said.

In response, groundwater authority vice chair Phillip Peters, who also serves as chair of the Kern County Board of Supervisors said that since this project hasn’t formally come before either board, members couldn’t take any official stance.

“We have to give fair consideration legally to the applicant and the opposition,” if and when the project officially comes before the board, Peters said.

Several other audience members speculated that the data center developer may be proposing only a portion of the project, with greater expansion coming in the future.

Former legal counsel for the authority Phil Hall said if that were true, that could be considered “piecemealing,” which isn’t allowed under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

Another audience member demanded the groundwater authority give a specific date for when it would take a stance on the project and let that stance be known to oversight agencies. 

“I will make a referral that we take this up at our next meeting and make a determination of whether or not we’ll send an official letter of support,” Peters said.

The board voted unanimously to put the AI data center on its action items at the June 10 meeting.

More comments and questions followed including whether the Navy would have input and asking if the authority would put information about upcoming timelines regarding the data center on its website.

Finally audience member Beth Cardinez stated, “I’ve not met a person yet who is supportive of this and who is not concerned.”

“It is nice to see everybody on the same side of an issue for a change,” Peters said, in apparent reference to the legal adjudication and often heated debate over the authority’s plan to build a 50-mile pipeline to bring water to the region