Gabriela Sandoval CAMERON COUNTY – In a news release sent out last Thursday by the Office of Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño Jr. it states the county has issued a worksite permit to a data center developer called Fluidstack for the construction of a closed-loop technology data center facility.
The construction of a data center facility will be located east of FM 509 and west of FM 106 near the Valley International Airport in Harlingen.
According to Armani Newman, cofounder of For The People Alliance, these data centers may do more harm than good.
“We do stand against these data centers.,” Newman said. “The data centers isn’t really more of like a moral issue, it’s more of just the facts that we’re seeing is absolutely outrageous.”
According to the World Resources Institution website’s data center map, North Texas appears to have the most plans for data centers or active data centers.
Despite Newman’s strong opposition, in that same news release Judge Treviño stated,
“The County recognizes that residents have expressed a range of opinions regarding data center development in Cameron County. County officials will continue to work with state agencies, utility partners and the developer to ensure that all applicable requirements are met, and local concerns are addressed.”
Newman said the promise of job opportunities may not be enough to sustain families.
“They say jobs in the hundreds in the thousands. These are jobs that they provide when they construct the thing, after it’s done, that’s it. The jobs they are providing aren’t going to feed our families for decades,” he said.
On Fluidstack Cameron County’s website, the closed-loop cooling system is expected to use the same water indefinitely, meaning the community’s water may not be used for the system. It also states the project is expected to create more than 2,500 construction jobs and several hundred full-time jobs on site once operational.
KVAQ-TV spoke to a few UTRGV students to ask about their thoughts on data centers.
“How many people are going to get a say on that here in the area,” said Alexander Gallardo, a computer science senior. “Some people might not even be aware what they’re capable of and what they are going to be used for.”
“The first thing I think about is the like Boca Chica area where SpaceX is doing all their stuff. I feel like that’s just [going to] get worse, “said Joseph Ramirez, biomedical science Junior. “Obviously the poorer income, we’re going to suffer. I don’t know which ways we’re going to suffer, but I just know, I just think it’s bad.”
In a news release from the Office of the Texas Governor in early June, Governor Greg Abbott stated he hac directed the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability council of Texas, or ERCOT, to protect residential ratepayers from the costs of data center expansion stating, “data centers must operate in ways that reduce costs for residential electricity customers, do not drain water needed for our communities, and take into consideration the needs of our neighborhoods.”
According to the Fluidstack Cameron County website, construction will begin this fall and may end by mid-2028 for phase one.
