{"id":313411,"date":"2026-05-29T03:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T03:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/313411\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T03:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T03:52:09","slug":"texas-is-already-strained-data-center-opposition-builds-in-waco-over-water-electricity-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/313411\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cTexas is already strained\u201d: Data center opposition builds in Waco over water, electricity concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

WACO, Texas (KWTX) – A new Gallup poll<\/a> shows about 7 in 10 Americans oppose building data centers in their local area. That opposition gained momentum at a public forum hosted at the Waco Bridge, where residents and experts discussed concerns over water use, power demand and quality-of-life impacts tied to a proposed data center in the area.<\/p>\n

Ross resident Ernest Uptmore lives across the street from the proposed Lacy Lakeview data center site. He said his worries go beyond the big-picture resource questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe use of water, electricity,\u201d Uptmore said. \u201cIn our case, living across the road, we\u2019re worried about light pollution, noise pollution, heat pollution.\u201d<\/p>\n

The panel included McLennan County Judge Scott Felton, data center expert Dr. Margaret Cook and state environmental policy expert Luke Metzger. All three flagged water use as a major concern, noting that Texas is already under strain.<\/p>\n

Cook said data centers are projected to use \u2014 or could even exceed \u2014 2.7% of the state\u2019s water supply by 2030.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe State Water Development Board projects that we won\u2019t have enough water to meet future demands, and that\u2019s not even counting data centers,\u201d Metzger said.<\/p>\n

Cook added that projected water use is difficult to pin down because data centers have not consistently participated in statewide data collection.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the Texas Water Development Board does its data collection from water users, data centers have not been answering those surveys,\u201d Cook said.<\/p>\n

Panelists also raised alarms about the electrical grid. Cook said ERCOT has received data center power requests totaling more than 194 gigawatts \u2014 roughly double the current size of the state\u2019s grid.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat estimate is not necessarily every data center that would get constructed,\u201d Cook said.<\/p>\n

Because those numbers are requests, and connecting that much capacity is not feasible, Cook said realistic additions could fall in the 30- to 51-gigawatt range. Even then, she said, it would still put pressure on Texas\u2019s existing power supply.<\/p>\n

Felton told attendees that local governments have limited authority when it comes to regulating data centers \u2014 shifting the focus to action at the state level.<\/p>\n

The Texas Legislature is expected to hold interim hearings on data centers this summer, which will be open to public comment. Texans can also weigh in on the 2027 State Water Plan<\/a>, with public feedback due by 5 p.m. Wednesday. Residents opposed to data center growth say that the process could be a chance to push for changes in how Texas allocates water as new projects continue to be proposed.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 KWTX. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WACO, Texas (KWTX) – A new Gallup poll shows about 7 in 10 Americans oppose building data centers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[112825,112823,112827,112824,5304,69063,112826,69064,27,69690,29,28,19673,81916,112828],"class_list":["post-313411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-data-center-electricity","tag-data-center-opposition","tag-data-center-pollution","tag-data-center-water","tag-data-centers","tag-lacy-lakeview-data-center","tag-riesel-data-center","tag-ross-data-center","tag-texas","tag-texas-data-centers","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-power-grid","tag-texas-water-supply","tag-waco-data-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}