Excerpt:

On June 17, the City Council unanimously rejected a lease at Alameda Point for a digital data storage facility that would have been part of “the cloud.” Just six weeks earlier, four Councilmembers had voted to bring it back with minor tweaks to the language of the lease.

The facility proposed by Nautilus Data Technologies was touted as revolutionary and green, but environmentalists disagreed. Using a “once-through” cooling system, the facility proposed cooling down its equipment by sucking huge amounts of Bay water through its servers and discharging the warmed water back into the Bay.

This system has been used to cool power plants, but the state is now phasing it out. The proposal met with strong opposition from San Francisco Baykeeper, the Sierra Club, the Golden Gate Audubon Society and Alameda Point Harbor Seal Monitors. Concerned residents questioned why Alameda was considering allowing such a facility at Alameda Point.