Scope
Statutes of 2026, chapter 437 (AB 2619) adds Business and Professions Code sections 16000.4 and 16100.4: before applying to a city or county for an initial business license, equivalent instrument, or permit, a person who owns or operates a data center must give its water supplier, under penalty of perjury, a good faith estimate of expected water use, source and projected volumes; the same estimate goes on the initial application; and on renewal the owner or operator must report the prior calendar year's annual water use, including total and direct water use and the cooling system type. It also amends Water Code section 10632.
- Geographic scope
- California
- Jurisdiction
- State
- Authority type
- Legislature
- Issuing authority
- California Legislature
Dates
- Adopted
- 21 September 2026
- Effective
- 1 January 2027
- Scheduled expiration
- See completion condition
- Ended
- Not recorded as ended
- Completion condition
- Not yet in effect on 23 September 2026. The statute states no expiration; dates inside it are implementation deadlines, not end dates.
- Source document
- 21 September 2026
- Last checked
- 1 October 2026 (earlier than tracker date 5 October 2026; not an automatic status change)
Summary
California AB 2619, approved and chaptered on 21 September 2026 as chapter 437, requires data center owners or operators to give their water supplier and the city or county a good faith water-use estimate at initial business licensing, under penalty of perjury, and to report the previous year's total and direct water use and cooling system type at each license renewal. It also has urban water suppliers count data center demand in water shortage planning inputs. It takes effect on 1 January 2027.
What this does not establish
- The finding was reviewed against the California Legislature official bulk-data file for 21 September 2026, saved and linked below. The primary link is the human-readable official bill page; that site disallows automated access, so the page itself was not checked automatically.
- 1 January 2027 is not printed in the chaptered text. It is taken from the official 2026 legislative calendar entry that statutes take effect 1 January 2027 under Article IV, section 8(c), and the chaptered text carries no urgency clause.
- The act defines Type I, II and III data centers by server count or power consumption; this record does not restate every tier.
- The earlier AB 93 (2025) on a similar subject was vetoed; it is a separate record.
Unresolved questions
None recorded.
Relationships
Supersession means a later instrument replaces the earlier legal effect. Repeal links identify the repeal instrument and the measure it ends. A later implementation or related letter is not treated as a replacement unless the record says so.
- No related action is recorded.
Sources
Primary source · Reviewed alternate official source (23 September 2026)
Link status, checked 23 September 2026: The finding was checked against a saved copy of the California Legislature official 21 September 2026 bulk-data file. The human-readable primary bill page is kept for readers, but its robots.txt disallows automated review.
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB2619
- Governor of California release announcing the signed data-center bills official announcement that the Governor signed the bill · 21 September 2026
- 2026 tentative legislative calendar (Senate) basis for the 1 January 2027 effective day of non-urgency 2026 statutes
- California Legislature official daily bulk file reviewed for this record actual official bulk evidence reviewed for this record; saved and checked as unchanged