GILROY, California — The simmering dispute over Amazon's large-scale data centre development on the edge of Gilroy reached a new threshold on Tuesday as a coalition of local residents and environmental advocacy groups filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, demanding a full disclosure of the facility's projected water withdrawal and energy consumption figures before construction advances further.
The complaint, submitted to the EPA's Region 9 office in San Francisco, alleges that Amazon failed to adequately disclose the facility's anticipated draw on the Santa Clara Valley Water District's supply during the environmental review process. Gilroy sits in a region already under periodic drought stress, and community leaders argue that a data centre of the facility's reported scale — estimated by local officials at over 500,000 square feet — could consume millions of gallons of water annually for cooling systems alone.
Amazon has declined to specify the facility's operational parameters, citing competitive confidentiality. The company issued a brief statement Tuesday acknowledging the complaint and stating it 'remains committed to responsible infrastructure development and transparent engagement with regulators and the communities where we operate.' A spokesperson declined to provide specific water or power figures.
The action follows weeks of intensifying local opposition documented in regional media, with Gilroy neighbours raising concerns about grid strain, groundwater depletion, and the lack of community input into a project that received limited public notice. Santa Clara Valley Water District officials confirmed Tuesday they had received a separate request for information from the coalition's legal counsel and said they would respond within the statutory 30-day window.
The Gilroy case is drawing attention from data centre policy researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, who noted it reflects a nationwide pattern of communities pushing back against hyperscale infrastructure sited near agricultural water supplies. With the Biden-era federal data centre efficiency guidelines now under review, analysts say the EPA complaint may test whether existing environmental review frameworks are adequate for the current wave of AI-driven data centre expansion across California's Central Coast.