Assembly BillChaptered/SignedBusiness and Professions
AB 2619: Water resources: data centers.
What AB 2619 does, verified September 23, 2026
This bill aims to address the growing demand for water in California's data center industry. To do this, data center owners and operators must provide detailed information about their expected water use, source of water, and projected water use volume before applying for a business license or permit. This information will be used to assess the potential impact of data centers on California's water resources. The bill also requires the state to develop guidelines and best practices for maximizing the efficient use of natural resources, including the use of closed-loop systems and nonpotable water, to address the emerging needs of technology in California. Furthermore, the bill adds data center demand to the annual water supply and demand assessment and water shortage contingency plan, which are required for urban water suppliers. This will help cities and counties to better manage their…
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Last action: Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 437, Statutes of 2026. (2026-09-21)Alert me
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| Sep. 21, 2026 | Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 437, Statutes of 2026. |
| Sep. 21, 2026 | Approved by the Governor. |
| Sep. 04, 2026 | Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4 p.m. |
| Aug. 27, 2026 | Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 63. Noes 7. Page 6692.). |
| Aug. 27, 2026 | In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. |
Latest bill textChaptered version, September 21, 2026 · 2,781 words
Assembly Bill No. 2619
CHAPTER 437
An act to add Sections 16000.4 and 16100.4 to the Business and Professions Code, and to amend Section 10632 of the Water Code, relating to water.
[ Approved by Governor September 21, 2026. Filed with Secretary of State September 21, 2026. ]
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2619, Papan. Water resources: data centers.
(1) Existing law authorizes the legislative body of an incorporated city and the county board of supervisors to license businesses carried on within their respective jurisdictions and to set license fees, as specified.
This bill would require a person who owns or operates a data center, prior to applying to a city or a county for an initial business license, equivalent instrument, or permit, to provide its water supplier, under penalty of perjury, a good faith estimate of the expected water use, the anticipated source of water, and the data center’s projected water use volume for the maximum day, maximum month, and average year. When applying to a city or county for an initial business license, the bill would require a person who owns or operates a data center to report, under penalty of perjury, on the application, a good faith estimate of the expected water use, the anticipated source of water, and the data center’s projected water use volume for the maximum day, maximum month, and average year. When applying to a city or county for a renewal of a business license, equivalent instrument, or permit, the bill would require a person who owns or operates a data center to report, under penalty of perjury, on the application, the data center’s annual water use for the preceding calendar year, including total water and direct water use, as prescribed. By expanding the crime of perjury, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would define terms for purposes of these provisions.
(2) Existing law, the Urban Water Management Planning Act, requires every public and private urban water supplier that directly or indirectly provides water for municipal purposes to prepare and adopt an urban water management plan. Existing law requires an urban retail water supplier to quantify past, current, and projected water use, identifying the uses among water use sectors, including, among others, commercial, agricultural, and industrial. Existing law requires every urban water supplier to prepare and adopt a water shortage contingency plan as part of its urban water management plan. Existing law requires the water shortage contingency plan to include the procedures used in conducting an annual water supply and demand assessment, including the key data inputs and assessment methodology used to evaluate the urban water supplier’s water supply reliability for the current year and one dry year. Those key data inputs and assessment methodology used to evaluate water supply reliability include, among other things, current year unconstrained demand, considering certain factors.
This bill would specify that the current year unconstrained demand includes, but is not limited to, the unconstrained demand of data centers, irrigation, and other large water users.
(3) The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities.
(4) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
(a) It is the intent of the Legislature that data centers are considered commercial, industrial, and institutional users under the state’s “Making Conservation a California Way of Life” regulation (Article 1 (commencing with Section 965) of Chapter 3.5 of Division 3 of Title 23 of the California Code of Regulations), consistent with the urban water use objectives under Chapter 9 (commencing with Section 10609) of Part 2.55 of Division 6 of the Water Code.(b) The Legislature finds and declares that the growth of data center operations has created increasing demand for water resources, which have implications for statewide sustainability goals. The Department of Water Resources possesses the technical expertise, planning capacity, and regulatory experience necessary to evaluate and develop efficiency standards that balance operational reliability with resource conservation. California law has long required individual businesses and facilities to report water withdrawals, discharges, and related operational data directly to state or local water agencies where those activities may affect water supply, water quality, or aquatic resources.
(c) The Legislature finds that large scale data centers increasingly function as critical infrastructure with substantial and growing demands on water resources and that a similar framework of periodic, standardized facility level reporting is necessary to support statewide water conservation, infrastructure planning, and environmental protection in California.
SEC. 2.
Section 16000.4 is added to the Business and Professions Code, to read:16000.4.
(a) For purposes of this section:(1) “Data center” means a facility that houses computing infrastructure, including graphics and central processing units, servers, storage devices, networking equipment, and associated power and cooling systems, for the primary purpose of processing, storing, or distributing electronic data. Types of data centers include only the following:
(A) “Type I data center,” also commonly known as a “hyperscale data center,” means a data center with more than 10,000 servers or a power consumption of more than 25 megawatts.
(B) “Type II data center” means a data center with a power consumption of at least 2 megawatts and no more than 25 megawatts.
(C) “Type III data center” means a data center with a power consumption of less than two megawatts.
(2) “Water supplier” means either of the following:
(A) “Community water system,” as defined by Section 116275 of the Health and Safety Code.
(B) “Urban water supplier,” as defined by Section 10617 of the Water Code.
(b) (1) Prior to applying to a city for an initial business license, equivalent instrument, or permit, a person who owns or operates a data center shall provide its water supplier, under penalty of perjury, a good faith estimate of the expected water use, the anticipated source of water, and the data center’s projected water use volume for the maximum day, maximum month, and average year.
(2) When applying to a city for an initial business license, equivalent instrument, or permit, a person who owns or operates a data center shall report, under penalty of perjury, on the application, a good faith estimate of the expected water use, the anticipated source of water, and the data center’s projected water use volume for the maximum day, maximum month, and average year.
(3) When applying to a city for a renewal of a business license, equivalent instrument, or permit, a person who owns or operates a data center shall report, under penalty of perjury, the data center’s annual water use for the preceding calendar year, including total water use and direct water use. As part of direct water use reporting, the owner or operator shall report the cooling system type of the data center. For purposes of this paragraph, “direct annual water use” means the volume of water withdrawn, delivered, or otherwise used onsite for data center operations, including cooling, sanitation, irrigation, and any other operational use, identified by source, including potable water, nonpotable water, or recycled water.
SEC. 3.
Section 16100.4 is added to the Business and Professions Code, to read:16100.4.
(a) For purposes of this section:(1) “Data center” means a facility that houses computing infrastructure, including graphics and central processing units, servers, storage devices, networking equipment, and associated power and cooling systems, for the primary purpose of processing, storing, or distributing electronic data. Types of data centers include only the following:
(A) “Type I data center,” also commonly known as a “hyperscale data center,” means a data center with more than 10,000 servers or a power consumption of more than 25 megawatts.
(B) “Type II data center” means a data center with a power consumption of at least 2 megawatts and no more than 25 megawatts.
(C) “Type III data center” means a data center with a power consumption of less than two megawatts.
(2) “Water supplier” means either of the following:
(A) “Community water system,” as defined by Section 116275 of the Health and Safety Code.
(B) “Urban water supplier,” as defined by Section 10617 of the Water Code.
(b) (1) Prior to applying to a county for an initial business license, equivalent instrument, or permit, a person who owns or operates a data center shall provide its water supplier, under penalty of perjury, a good faith estimate of the expected water use, the anticipated source of water, and the data center’s projected water use volume for the maximum day, maximum month, and average year.
(2) When applying to a county for an initial business license, equivalent instrument, or permit, a person who owns or operates a data center shall report, under penalty of perjury, on the application, a good faith estimate of the expected water use, the anticipated source of water, and the data center’s projected water use volume for the maximum day, maximum month, and average year.
(3) When applying to a county for a renewal of a business license, equivalent instrument, or permit, a person who owns or operates a data center shall report, under penalty of perjury, the data center’s annual water use for the preceding calendar year, including total water use and direct water use. As part of direct water use reporting, the owner or operator shall report the cooling system type of the data center. For purposes of this paragraph, “direct annual water use” means the volume of water withdrawn, delivered, or otherwise used onsite for data center operations, including cooling, sanitation, irrigation, and any other operational use, identified by source, including potable water, nonpotable water, or recycled water.
SEC. 4.
Section 10632 of the Water Code is amended to read:10632.
(a) Every urban water supplier shall prepare and adopt a water shortage contingency plan as part of its urban water management plan that consists of each of the following elements:(1) The analysis of water supply reliability conducted pursuant to Section 10635.
(2) The procedures used in conducting an annual water supply and demand assessment that include, at a minimum, both of the following:
(A) The written decisionmaking process that an urban water supplier will use each year to determine its water supply reliability.
(B) The key data inputs and assessment methodology used to evaluate the urban water supplier’s water supply reliability for the current year and one dry year, including all of the following:
(i) Current year unconstrained demand, including, but not limited to, the unconstrained demand of data centers, irrigation, and other large users, considering weather, growth, and other influencing factors, such as policies to manage current supplies to meet demand objectives in future years, as applicable.
(ii) Current year available supply, considering hydrological and regulatory conditions in the current year and one dry year. The annual supply and demand assessment may consider more than one dry year solely at the discretion of the urban water supplier.
(iii) Existing infrastructure capabilities and plausible constraints.
(iv) A defined set of locally applicable evaluation criteria that are consistently relied upon for each annual water supply and demand assessment.
(v) A description and quantification of each source of water supply.
(3) (A) Six standard water shortage levels corresponding to progressive ranges of up to 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 percent shortages and greater than 50 percent shortage. Urban water suppliers shall define these shortage levels based on the suppliers’ water supply conditions, including percentage reductions in water supply, changes in groundwater levels, changes in surface elevation or level of subsidence, or other changes in hydrological or other local conditions indicative of the water supply available for use. Shortage levels shall also apply to catastrophic interruption of water supplies, including, but not limited to, a regional power outage, an earthquake, and other potential emergency events.
(B) An urban water supplier with an existing water shortage contingency plan that uses different water shortage levels may comply with the requirement in subparagraph (A) by developing and including a cross-reference relating its existing categories to the six standard water shortage levels.
(4) Shortage response actions that align with the defined shortage levels and include, at a minimum, all of the following:
(A) Locally appropriate supply augmentation actions.
(B) Locally appropriate demand reduction actions to adequately respond to shortages.
(C) Locally appropriate operational changes.
(D) Additional, mandatory prohibitions against specific water use practices that are in addition to state-mandated prohibitions and appropriate to the local conditions.
(E) For each action, an estimate of the extent to which the gap between supplies and demand will be reduced by implementation of the action.
(5) Communication protocols and procedures to inform customers, the public, interested parties, and local, regional, and state governments, regarding, at a minimum, all of the following:
(A) Any current or predicted shortages as determined by the annual water supply and demand assessment described pursuant to Section 10632.1.
(B) Any shortage response actions triggered or anticipated to be triggered by the annual water supply and demand assessment described pursuant to Section 10632.1.
(C) Any other relevant communications.
(6) For an urban retail water supplier, customer compliance, enforcement, appeal, and exemption procedures for triggered shortage response actions as determined pursuant to Section 10632.2.
(7) (A) A description of the legal authorities that empower the urban water supplier to implement and enforce its shortage response actions specified in paragraph (4) that may include, but are not limited to, statutory authorities, ordinances, resolutions, and contract provisions.
(B) A statement that an urban water supplier shall declare a water shortage emergency in accordance with Chapter 3 (commencing with Section 350) of Division 1.
(C) A statement that an urban water supplier shall coordinate with any city or county within which it provides water supply services for the possible proclamation of a local emergency, as defined in Section 8558 of the Government Code.
(8) A description of the financial consequences of, and responses for, drought conditions, including, but not limited to, all of the following:
(A) A description of potential revenue reductions and expense increases associated with activated shortage response actions described in paragraph (4).
(B) A description of mitigation actions needed to address revenue reductions and expense increases associated with activated shortage response actions described in paragraph (4).
(C) A description of the cost of compliance with Chapter 3.3 (commencing with Section 365) of Division 1.
(9) For an urban retail water supplier, monitoring and reporting requirements and procedures that ensure appropriate data is collected, tracked, and analyzed for purposes of monitoring customer compliance and to meet state reporting requirements.
(10) Reevaluation and improvement procedures for systematically monitoring and evaluating the functionality of the water shortage contingency plan in order to ensure shortage risk tolerance is adequate and appropriate water shortage mitigation strategies are implemented as needed.
(b) For purposes of developing the water shortage contingency plan pursuant to subdivision (a), an urban water supplier shall analyze and define water features that are artificially supplied with water, including ponds, lakes, waterfalls, and fountains, separately from swimming pools and spas, as defined in subdivision (a) of Section 115921 of the Health and Safety Code.
(c) The urban water supplier shall make available the water shortage contingency plan prepared pursuant to this article to its customers and any city or county within which it provides water supplies no later than 30 days after adoption of the water shortage contingency plan.
SEC. 5.
The Legislature finds and declares that water conservation is a matter of statewide concern and is not a municipal affair as that term is used in Section 5 of Article XI of the California Constitution. Therefore, Section 2 of this act adding Section 16000.4 to the Business and Professions Code applies to all cities, including charter cities.SEC. 6.
No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because a local agency or school district has the authority to levy service charges, fees, or assessments sufficient to pay for the program or level of service mandated by this act or because costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution.Text of AB 2619 as chaptered, from the official record. Connect Plus keeps every version and highlights what changed.Compare versions