EL PASO, TEXAS (KFOX14/CBS4) — As El Paso prepares for Meta’s planned data center, El Paso Water leaders say the project’s water demand will be comparable to uses residents already see in the community — and they point to a familiar example: a local golf course.
El Paso Water President and CEO John Balliew said, “the amount of water that’s going to be used on this footprint is about the same as what we use for any sort of residential… residential-commercial community.”
During a City Council presentation last month, Balliew compared Meta’s projected water demand to a golf course. At the July 6 City Council meeting, he said, “even if it was a golf course… nobody would be complaining about the water consumption even though it’s the same amount. So in terms of taxing the overall water supply for the future generations of El Paso… tiny, tiny impact on that.”
Asked to explain the comparison, Balliew said, “i think a golf course and a half… so an 18-hole plus a nine-hole golf course.”
Balliew pointed to Painted Dunes in Northeast El Paso, a 27-hole course owned by El Paso Water, as the basis for the comparison. The utility provided water-use numbers behind it, including two months it described as typical peak-usage months.
Painted Dunes averaged 532,000 gallons per day in August 2025 and 558,000 gallons per day in June 2026. Both figures are higher than Meta’s projected annual daily average of about 480,000 gallons per day, according to El Paso Water.
Jordan Salas reports on Meta vs. Painted Dunes: What the numbers and water sources show (Credit: KFOX14)
The utility also highlighted a key difference between the golf course comparison and the data center: the type of water used. Balliew said, “Painted Dunes is a reclaimed-water customer…but we know how much water it’s used… and of course Meta could use reclaimed water but we don’t have the reclaimed-water resource available because it’s all used up by existing customers.”
Balliew said Meta would instead receive water from El Paso Water’s drinking-water system. “in terms of the water that’s being provided to Meta… its the same as the water quality anywhere else in our system,” he said.
El Paso Water also said Meta’s maximum water-use rate is 2.5 million gallons per day.
In a statement to KFOX14, the utility said: “El Paso Water will hold Meta to the maximum of 2.5 MGD as stated in the contract. Additionally, the water meter provides a physical constraint that will not allow more than the 2.5 MGD to pass through the line.”
The utility said Meta will mostly use air for cooling when temperatures are below 86 degrees, with more water added as temperatures rise.
El Paso Water said its 480,000-gallon projection is based on temperature throughout the year, and Balliew said the projection also accounts for additional heat around the data center from what he called an urban heat-island effect.
“When you get to a really high triple-digit dates… that’s when the 2-point-5 kicks in… 117 degrees. And that’s only a few days out of the year… and a few hours on those days that it reaches that amount,” Balliew said.
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