EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — A handful of community groups and residents who live near the Meta data center project gathered Saturday, July 25 for what they called a “Block Party Protest.”
Cynthia Crouse said she lives about a mile away from where the data center is being built in Northeast El Paso. She said she has worked in technology for much of her life but she is concerned about this project.
“I’ve worked in IT pretty much all my life and I have nothing against AI. I have nothing against technology and data, but when that data center is located a mile away from my community, then yeah, I’ve got a lot of questions,” Crouse said. “I’ve got a lot of concerns. We are concerned about our health here.”
Veronica Carbajal, with Sembrando Esperanza Coalition, said the gathering was done as a way for opponents of the data center to get to know each other and to demonstrate to Meta “that we don’t want them here at all.”
“We are asking that Meta leave,” Carbajal said.
Carbajal said: “We are not happy with any of the promises that they’ve made so far because we believe that all the promises will fall short, because there is no way to address the noise pollution, the air pollution, the heat pollution, and all the other consequences that we’re starting to see from the data center, even as it’s being constructed now.”
Carbajal said her biggest concern is water consumption at the facility.
“Now it is up to 2.5 million gallons a day on the hottest day, as well as the water consumption at the power plant (that will power the center),” Carbajal said. “El Paso Electric has yet to give us a clear answer. They promised us an answer on June 18th. To this day, they have not told us exactly how much water they will need to provide a thousand megawatts.”
Carbajal said that she has learned from other data centers from around the state and the country that “these data centers don’t keep their promises.”
“And so they will continue to tell us they’re going to do one thing and they actually do another,” Carbajal said.
Clayton Tucker, the Democratic nominee for Texas agriculture commissioner, was also at the event.
“We’re here to support the community of El Paso and their fight to stop the Meta data center. These data centers are water hogs. They do not belong in arid areas,” Tucker said.
“We need to pause all this, really reconsider, make sure they don’t take our resources, harm our communities or create any sort of mass surveillance or other problems,” Tucker added.
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