Mesa County doesn’t need to choose between technology and our quality of life. We need rules that protect both.
By David Ware | WesternSlopeLive.com
Opinion • Local policy details checked October 13, 2026.
Here’s the thing: I understand why people in Mesa County are nervous about data centers.
We live in the West. Water matters. Electricity matters. Agricultural land matters. Nobody wants to watch their utility bill climb because some multibillion-dollar company showed up needing enormous amounts of power. Nobody wants scarce water evaporated unnecessarily to cool computers. Nobody wants a giant industrial building humming next to a neighborhood.
Those are legitimate concerns.
But “NO DATA CENTERS” isn’t a policy. It’s a slogan.
And it ignores an uncomfortable reality:
We already depend on data centers every single day.
Facebook? Data centers.
Email? Data centers.
Your bank account and debit card? Data centers.
Payroll? Data centers.
Medical records? Data centers.
Streaming television, cloud storage, websites, online shopping, government records, insurance, business systems and countless other services all rely on servers housed somewhere.
“The cloud” isn’t magic.
It’s somebody else’s computer sitting in a building somewhere.
And we already have an excellent local example.
The Grand Junction VA Medical Center has a Tier II data-center project as part of its electronic health record modernization work. Federal procurement records identify the project, and the VA’s May 2026 announcement confirms funding for local data-center infrastructure upgrades. That is a healthcare data-center project, not a sprawling AI campus. SAM.gov project listing • VA funding announcement
Why does the VA need it?
Because modern healthcare depends on data.
That alone should tell us something about the current debate.
Not all data centers are the same
One of the biggest mistakes we’re making is talking about “data centers” as though they are all one thing.
They aren’t.
A small enterprise facility supporting medical records might draw hundreds of kilowatts.
A hyperscale AI campus could draw hundreds of megawatts.
Both are called data centers.
That’s a little like putting a neighborhood grocery store and an oil refinery in the same category because both are “businesses.”
The words simply don’t tell us enough.
And the same is true of water.
Some data centers rely heavily on evaporative cooling. Others use air-cooled refrigeration, dry cooling or hybrid systems that can dramatically reduce direct consumptive water use. A closed loop inside a building does not, by itself, tell us how much water the full cooling system consumes.
Colorado’s own Legislative Council has acknowledged that data-center impacts vary substantially depending on cooling technology, water source, location and electrical demand. Colorado Legislative Council Staff report
So instead of asking:
“Do data centers use too much water?”
Ask:
“How much water will THIS data center consume?”
That’s a question we can actually answer.
Mesa County is doing something reasonable right now
Despite some of the rhetoric floating around social media, county officials reported no pending data-center applications when they announced the moratorium in unincorporated Mesa County.
The Mesa County Commissioners unanimously approved a 12-month moratorium on Sept. 29, temporarily stopping applications while the county works on regulations. County officials said the existing 2020 development code doesn’t specifically address data centers and that the pause gives them time to gather public input and write appropriate rules. Mesa County’s Sept. 29 announcement
That’s reasonable.
In fact, that’s exactly what local government ought to be doing.
Don’t wait until somebody proposes a 300-megawatt project and then scramble to figure out the rules.
Write the rules first.
Before the moratorium, the draft code contemplated limiting data centers to Mesa County’s I-1 and I-2 industrial zones. County officials also noted that the industrial parcels currently available aren’t large enough for some of the enormous campuses making headlines elsewhere. KJCT’s report on the draft code
The City of Grand Junction is having the same discussion. City Council has taken the first step toward a one-year moratorium covering data centers projected to draw one megawatt or more, with a public hearing scheduled for Oct. 21. City of Grand Junction announcement
That gives us an opportunity.
Let’s use it.
Here’s what Mesa County should demand
Don’t ban an entire industry.
Set the bar high.
If a company wants to build a large data center here, tell us exactly how much electricity it needs.
Tell us exactly how much water it will consume — not merely circulate through pipes.
Tell us where that water comes from.
Tell us what happens during drought.
Tell us what cooling technology will be used.
Tell us whether new substations, transmission lines or generation will be required.
And most importantly:
Tell us who pays for it.
Existing Mesa County residents should not subsidize hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure so a multibillion-dollar technology company can operate here.
Colorado legislators wrestled with this exact issue in 2026. One proposal would have required large data centers to enter long-term utility agreements and pay certain infrastructure and resource costs rather than shifting them onto other customers. That bill ultimately failed, but the principle is worth keeping: growth should pay its own way. Colorado Senate Bill 26-102
We should also demand enforceable noise standards, appropriate setbacks, backup-generator standards, water reporting and a realistic accounting of permanent jobs and tax revenue.
If a developer can’t meet those standards?
Then maybe that project doesn’t belong here.
I’m perfectly comfortable saying that.
But “none” isn’t the answer either
Here’s where I part company with the NO DATA CENTERS crowd.
We don’t get to enjoy a digital economy while pretending the physical infrastructure supporting it shouldn’t exist anywhere.
We can’t simultaneously demand online banking, instant medical records, streaming entertainment, cloud storage, electronic payroll, cybersecurity, government services and artificial intelligence — and then act surprised when somebody has to build the machines that make those things work.
And AI raises the stakes further.
The United States is in a global competition for computing capacity. Data-center infrastructure is becoming increasingly important not merely to Facebook or ChatGPT, but to medicine, scientific research, cybersecurity, manufacturing and national security.
That doesn’t mean Mesa County needs to sacrifice its water for it.
It means we need to be smarter.
Technology will continue improving. Cooling systems will become more efficient. Chips will become more efficient. Power generation and storage will change. Facilities that once required enormous quantities of water may increasingly be designed around technologies that require far less.
Our regulations should encourage that innovation rather than pretending the industry simply won’t exist.
We don’t have to choose
I reject the idea that Mesa County has only two options:
Build everything.
or
Build nothing.
We can protect the Colorado River.
We can protect agriculture.
We can protect residential electric customers.
We can protect neighborhoods.
And we can still recognize that digital infrastructure is going to be an important part of America’s economic future.
That’s what responsible development means.
Measure the impacts.
Set the standards.
Make developers pay their share.
Reject bad projects.
Welcome good ones.
The goal shouldn’t be “NO DATA CENTERS.”
It should be something considerably harder — and considerably smarter:
DATA CENTERS — DONE RIGHT.
