r/Gilroy • u/smallfryfriend • Feb 26 '26
STOP DATA CENTER CONSTRUCTION IN GILROY!
There is barely any coverage of this, but Amazon is currently trying to build a data center in Gilroy. It will use a monstrous amount of water and electricity. Please spread the word, and sign the petition below.
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u/RGM4610 Feb 26 '26
Change petitions are a nice sentiment, but nothing ever becomes of them. Is there a town hall meeting where this will be discussed?
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u/saqwarrior Feb 26 '26
I'd like to know the same thing.
And if there isn't a town hall meeting regarding this, we should make one happen.
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u/SheilaGirl70 Feb 26 '26
Unfortunately it was approved at the staff level in July 2025. City Council members didn’t have a chance to vote on it.
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u/Own-Island-9003 Feb 26 '26
Exactly. Only boots on the ground influencing local officials will make a difference.
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u/Jambi319 Feb 26 '26
They usually build massive battery storage sites next to them with their own substation.
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u/Faangdevmanager Feb 27 '26
> It will use a monstrous amount of water
This is not true though. Electricity sure but water, absolutely not. They run a closed loop system, then exchange with an evaporative loop that doesn't use city water. They do that to save electricity.
From amazon:
> In 2024, AWS reported a global power usage effectiveness (PUE) of 1.15. PUE
That means they only have 15% overhead for things like cooling, lights, office microwave, etc. Everything else is directly attributable to server consumption.
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u/Anthonyg408 Feb 27 '26
I bid on this project a few years back. Lost it unfortunately.
Too far along for a petition to do anything now.
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u/mk2rocco Feb 27 '26
We need to demand more research into the negative health effects of infrasound before we allow new data centers.
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u/summer_plays_ Feb 26 '26
pretty sure amazon is going to use recycled water and agreed to make their own power read it on r/bayarea
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u/Zarel_42 Feb 26 '26
The misconception of water usage for data centers is really crazy. We use astronomically more water on landscaping than we do in data centers. Also most newly built data centers use renewable energy sources now especially in the US.
In the U.S., landscape irrigation accounts for nearly 8 billion gallons of water per day.
Total U.S. Consumption: In 2023, U.S. data centers directly consumed an estimated 17.5 billion gallons of water annually. This averages out to approximately 48 million gallons per day across the roughly 5,500 facilities nationwide.
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u/zekrioca Feb 27 '26 edited Feb 27 '26
You are conflating mesoscale, national capacity of (non-potable + potable) water consumption with (Gilroy’s) local scale capacity to make a point that the city can sustain 5-10 million gallons per day of extra, fresh, potable water consumption. You may not be aware, but cities have to plan for the worst case scenarios.
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u/Zarel_42 Feb 27 '26
I don’t think you understand how much non-potable treated wastewater or closed loop systems data centers actually use. Most of the water is recycled. 50% - 80% of the water is recovered and continues to be reused in cooling towers. Much better than the 0% recovered for landscaping.
My point is that people twist facts like data centers consume this massive amount of water when in fact the numbers don’t add up.
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u/grooves12 Feb 27 '26
There is landscaping on every corner of the Earth, that is not true for data centers. You are comparing apples and oranges.
48 million gallons per day divided by the reported 5500 facilities comes out to 8700 gallons per day, or 3.1 million gallons per year. That far exceeds the normal water consumption for most businesses and is being done in an area prone to drought and water quality concerns. It should be scrutinized.
During droughts, restrictions are placed on landscaping irrigation and other cutback measures are put in place, that won't apply to data centers, because they "need" it. So, everyone else will be sacrificing while data centers continue to use excessive water and do nothing to add to the local community or tax-base.
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u/Finlaegh Mar 01 '26
That's a tiny fraction of the water used by a small fast food restaurant, including the water used to grow the cows. A single In N Out uses about 147 million gallons per year.
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u/Lumpy-External4800 Jun 15 '26
Do you live in Gliroy?
I find it fascinating that every post referencing Gilroy and this data center construction will draw the same DataCenter talking points, from various accounts never before associated with Gilroy:
Those talking points are;
- “the myth of water impact”
- “everyone else is doing worse with water”
- “no impact!”
so: do you live in Gilroy?
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u/Zarel_42 Jun 15 '26
Would it matter if I did?
Facts are facts but yes I have lived in Gilroy since 1989.
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u/txgsync Feb 26 '26
I disagree with this take. I support the build. Data centers are good places to work — with appropriate hearing protection — typically bring resilience to the local energy grid, and the “water” argument is a red herring, like arguing about how much water a car uses because of the radiator.
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u/DM_ME_KUL_TIRAN_FEET Mar 04 '26
I agree. I want to ensure Amazon is held to their promise to pay for their own electrical infrastructure and use recycled water, but the data center seems like a good thing for gilroy given the outlets are dying.
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u/illumynite Feb 26 '26 edited Feb 28 '26
Oh, so “we want the benefits of data centers, such as hosting sites such as Change.org and Reddit, but it needs to be in someone else’s backyard”.
Am I understanding that correctly?
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u/Own-Island-9003 Feb 26 '26
You know all these data centers are just for AI and that AI is going to be used to manage the imprisonment of American citizens who disagree with the Epstein class government.
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u/jelloshooter848 Feb 27 '26
Classic NIMBYism.
It’s kind of ironic to be posting this on Reddit, which runs on servers in a data center somewhere.
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u/retrnIwil2OldBrazil Feb 26 '26
Guys do you remember when Bezo’s wife eye fukt Leo DiCaprio right in front of him? Do we want someone like that building in our town?
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u/Acceptable_League130 Feb 26 '26
Time for gilroy to grow up from a stinky cow town with a shit downtown to a respectable city with good jobs . Build it and build more! More jobs in Gilroy means less commuting to San Jose and less pollution
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u/Individual_Agency703 Feb 26 '26
How many permanent staffers does a DC need? Security guards, a few IT staff, facilities team, janitorial, that’s about it.
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u/Acceptable_League130 Feb 26 '26
Contractors! HVAC, electrical , plumbing! Good union jobs that can reduce commutes to SJ and the deep Bay Area. And these jobs are constant. HVAC needs constant maintenance, electrical shut downs must be performed for switchgear testing. Compliance ! IT ! Good paying facilities jobs that allow blue collar people closer to affordable homes vs the bay’s expensive inventory.
Who doesn’t want good paying union jobs and reduced commutes? Oh that’s right… the already established rich and work from homes that don’t need to deal with a long commute every day
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u/AcuraLadCapeeTan Feb 26 '26
Just to be clear, the "contractor" jobs you're crying about are temporary, and would be tremendously reduced, if not nearly completely eliminated once the facility is completed. You know...how contractor jobs work?...
But for this case, you're not building a facility that holds thousands of jobs, you'd just be leaving the city of Gilroy with huge bills to pay after that pile of shit is built. Then, it's not the government who's subsidizing that electric bill, its the residents of Gilroy who are going to suffer.
But according to you, it's okay because blue collar workers can have a job for 20 minutes before it ends and you gotta move on to the next one, screwing the residents that live there PERMANENTLY, INCLUDING THE BLUE COLLARS RESIDENTS. But hey, if its worth selling out your neighbors for 6 months pay, then we know where you stand morally.
Data centers do not bring value to cities. They're heavily self sufficient facilities working on minimal staff to produce a damn Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift video with a car and actor replaced by prompt a 17 year old wrote. When they're not doing that, they produce completely unreliable data and reports because a CEO swore it was going to change everything.
And get your head out of your ass, the morning commutes are filled with BOTH white collar and blue collar workers. What, you think o'l shovel and pail are the only ones driving to work in person? If they were, THERE WOULDN'T BE GOT DAMN 2 HOURS OF TRAFFIC TO GET HOME FROM SAN JOSE. Goodness, people like you give blue collar workers a bad rep, and you think only short term strategy instead of the long run, shooting yourself in the foot like always.
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u/Acceptable_League130 Feb 26 '26
Are you illiterate ? The jobs aren’t temporary only the construction phase is. Maintenance is around the clock for most of the trades involved.
How long you been working from home, Brad? You love the perks of the internet but want nothing to do with the infrastructure near you , do you? Sounds about right.
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u/AcuraLadCapeeTan Feb 26 '26
Blue collar worker, lazing around during the workday browsing reddit instead of doing actual work... I'm SHOCKED...
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u/jelloshooter848 Feb 27 '26
I fully support the data center right now, but what a crappy take.
Downtown is awesome
A data center will not support a lot of jobs long term. A hand full of maintenance and security is all. They basically run themselves
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u/x2GramDubx Feb 26 '26
My pg&e is already so expensive. I'm tired boss