Lithium Valley Data Explorer

Imperial County sits atop one of the world's largest known lithium reserves, and a "modern-day gold rush" is unfolding across its fenceline communities. International energy companies, data center developers, and solar-and-battery projects are advancing simultaneously through permitting, and the Board of Supervisors is issuing approvals before the full environmental impacts are understood. For the predominantly Latino and Spanish-speaking residents of Imperial — already facing some of California's highest rates of childhood asthma, dust exposure from the drying Salton Sea, and heat-related health burdens — the information needed to engage in these decisions remains scattered across more than a dozen county portals, state databases, and stacks of English-only CEQA filings.

The Lithium Valley Data Explorer is being built to change that. Co-led by Tracking California and Comité Cívico del Valle (CCV), the bilingual interactive tool brings every active Direct Lithium Extraction plant, data center, solar farm, and battery storage proposal in Imperial County into one place — with maps, project status, permit stages, land-use overlays, and downloadable datasets. A live Community Mobilization timeline tracks public comment deadlines, Board of Supervisors meetings, and Imperial Irrigation District decisions, pointing residents directly to the portals where they can weigh in. A public beta is live now, and the tool is being designed to WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards with full mobile responsiveness.

The Data Explorer extends a long-running partnership between Tracking California and CCV rooted in community-led monitoring — beginning with the IVAN environmental reporting platform in 2010 and the IVAN AIR community air quality network in 2019, which the two organizations now run together across 40 monitors county-wide. Over the next year, through May 2027, the team will expand the tool with new datasets, analysis walkthroughs, and community training tied to CCV's annual Environmental Health Summit — and continue documenting Lithium Valley's industrial transformation as the first plants move from permit to ground-breaking.