Proposed Harlingen data center draws opposition over water and power use

There’s a small but vocal group of Harlingen residents who oppose data centers in the Rio Grande Valley, concerned about potential strains to water and electricity infrastructure. 

Retired information technology professional Raymond Reyes told city commissioners that he can’t support a data center because of a potential strain on water resources. 

“There’s already a drought in Texas to begin with; that’s an ongoing issue. Water is very important,” Reyes said. 

Harlingen resident Max Garza said he worries that a data center will “deplete all the resources” and that “there’s really no gains” from such a project because it doesn’t create very many new jobs. 

Donovan Salazar told commissioners he’s concerned that a data center could contribute to higher water and electricity costs. 

“Specifically putting strain on the local power grid, I’m pretty sure that we can remember the freeze that happened in 2021; our power grid is not able to deal with the large capacity that data centers could be imposing. And they are also very thirsty,” Salazar said. 

Resident Angela Valdespin was concerned about land use and what she called a lack of accountability. Valdespin said she is starting a petition against the project. 

“Corporations like this look for cheap land. They don’t care about the people that live there or the environment,” Valdespin said. “I fear this deal is already done.” 

But the proposed data center on a 1,780-acre site east of the Valley International Airport isn’t a done deal yet, and it would be located outside of city limits, officials say. 

Scotland-based Eneus Energy, through its subsidiary RGV Property Group LLC, is under contract to purchase more than a dozen parcels of land from Stone Brothers in Raymondville by April 2026, according to Cameron County records. 

Eneus Energy expects to build as many as 16 data center halls to power artificial intelligence, cloud, and data analytics, requiring 1 gigawatt of electricity. 

That much electricity could power about 250,000 homes. But the project is expected to be built in phases “to minimize community impacts and align construction with local infrastructure capacity.” 

“I am aware that there is interest in the City of Harlingen from a data center. Interest does not mean a project is moving forward,” Harlingen Mayor Norma Sepulveda said in a social media post on Tuesday. “It’s common for companies to explore locations and conduct due diligence before deciding whether to pursue a project.”

For example, the option to purchase land is a tentative agreement with an expiration date. 

In September, the company reached an agreement with the Harlingen Waterworks System, the City of Harlingen’s public water and wastewater utility, to supply treated effluent water for the proposed data center. Effluent water is non-potable wastewater suitable for industrial use. The project is expected to require about 4.6 million gallons of treated wastewater per day — a volume that could generate roughly $1.2 million a year for the water authority.

“If a proposal does move forward at any point, it would go through the appropriate public process and come before the city commission for discussion and consideration,” Sepulveda continued. 

Harlingen EDC Chief Executive Officer Orlando Campos was not available for comment; he previously declined, citing non-disclosure agreements with companies exploring the region.