Glenwood Springs Resident Calls for Active Citizenship Amid AI Data Center Water Threats

Glenwood Springs —Steven Kuschner isn’t just watching the Roaring Fork Valley from the sidelines. He’s stepping into the fray.

The Glenwood Springs resident wrote to the Post Independent to declare his readiness to fight the "noise and slime" he sees on local TV channels. He’s offering his time as an activist and volunteer. His goal is simple: help bring programs that actually matter to the community.

Kuschner’s letter is a direct challenge to his neighbors. He wants them to stop complaining and start connecting.

"Join your fellow valley people in congregation and get off the sidelines," he wrote.

He’s pointing to specific avenues for engagement. Check the libraries. Look at CMC offerings. Take classes on sustainability. Build trails. Attend meetings. Talk to your kids about what keeps them up at night.

It’s a call for active citizenship. Not passive consumption.

But not everyone is convinced that "personal responsibility" is the right lens for our current struggles.

Barbara Coddington read Kuschner’s optimism and Bryon Whiting’s recent columns on personal responsibility. She found the theme grating.

Inequality is growing. Hardship is deepening. Opportunity is sinking. Coddington argues that ambition and success often breed entitlement, not just hard work. She cites Elon Musk as an example.

She takes aim at the concept itself.

"If you want to pass judgment, save it for Walmart and other corporations that underpay employees and get away with it because employees are subsidized by food stamps," Coddington wrote.

She’s not talking about character flaws. She’s talking about systemic design.

Coddington worked at Social Services. She qualified people for food stamps. She saw the reality on the ground. Few were undeserving.

She remembers a mother of five. The woman needed help getting on her feet after a divorce. Forcing her to find a job and child care immediately would have consumed most of her income. She might have missed a house payment. Her children would have faced hunger and trauma.

Society loses when we force people onto the hamster wheel without support.

Coddington believes our most important duty is kindness. Fraternity. More Steinbeck, less Ayn Rand.

While locals debate social policy, a much larger physical threat looms over the state’s resources.

AI data centers.

They are coming to Colorado Springs and Windsor. They are massive. They are hungry.

The Post Independent reported that these centers raise serious concerns about water and energy use.

Colorado is in an ongoing drought. Water restrictions are widespread.

Traditional data centers have existed for decades. They handle basic storage and routing. Today’s centers are different. They are larger. They host file servers and networking equipment for artificial intelligence.

AI requires massive power. It requires massive cooling.

Cooling means water.

The math is simple. The state is drying up. The new tech is thirsty.

Locals need to ask who pays the price. Is it the rancher in the valley losing water rights? Is it the homeowner watching their electric bill spike? Or is it just another line item in a corporate budget?

Kuschner wants us to build trails. Coddington wants us to be kind. The data centers want our water.

The conflict is no longer theoretical. It’s infrastructure. It’s resource allocation. It’s the future of the Western Slope’s connection to the rest of the state.

We can join a library program. We can volunteer. Or we can watch the water levels drop while the servers hum.

The choice is between community involvement and corporate expansion.

Read that again.