The Parker County Commissioners Court hosted a standing-room-only special meeting to discuss data centers on Tuesday, June 9, in the upstairs courtroom at the Parker County Courthouse.
There were three purposes to the meeting: one, to educate the public on the issues surrounding data centers; two, to pass a resolution calling for state help in regulating data centers, and, three, to allow comment from the public.
The members of the court unanimously expressed their desire to prohibit data centers in the county, while at the same time admitting there is little the county government can do to stop them.
County Attorney John Forrest stated the court’s position.
“We share the same concerns about data centers coming to Parker County and the impact that it's going to have on our county,” Forrest said. “And from everything we read, it's not anything positive. This is not just a county problem, it's a state problem.”
Forrest told the group that Parker County only has statutory authority, meaning it can only do what is specifically authorized by the state. And the state has no provisions for counties to regulate data centers.
Cities, on the other hand, have more leverage and leeway to have restrictive zoning to prevent data centers.
Forrest quoted State Rep. Helen Kerwin of Johnson County, who said data centers are a little ahead of what the law is currently in the regulations, “and that's one of the problems that we're running into.”
According to Forrest, up to 1,000 data centers are coming to Texas, “and that's across 254 counties, so the odds are some are going to look to come to Parker County.”
County officials, including Forrest, have reached out to other Texas counties to see how they are handling the problem.
Hood County, to the south, is dealing not only with multiple data centers coming in, but with a bitcoin mining operation — “and the noise that it generates, and that's been a battle for the neighbors. It's just been a terrible situation down there, it adds nothing to the community. It draws electricity and causes problems for the neighbors down there.”
The tactic by Hood County has been to deny plats for the data centers, but according to Forrest that is outside the scope of the county’s authority, and now Hood County is in litigation with the data centers.
Hill County passed a moratorium on the construction of data centers, leading to a $100 million lawsuit against the county and against the commissioners individually. The county the voted to drop the moratorium, but the data centers have not dropped the lawsuit.
Although he has done extensive research on ways to combat the data centers, Forrest told the group he welcomed input.
“If you have anything that you think might be beneficial to the county, please send it to me,” Forrest said. “I'll read those emails and make sure if it's something that's applicable to us, we're going to implement it. And so you know we're here on your side. We want our community to be a good community. We all live here. We don't want the data centers to come in and drain our resources and take things away that will make us a lesser community and not a desirable place to live.”
One of the many concerns expressed in the meeting about data centers was the amount of water they use. A data canter can use up to five million gallons of water a day.
The next speaker was Doug Shaw, general manager of the Upper Trinity Groundwater Conservation District (UTGCD).
“The county hasn't been granted much authority to deal with situations like this, and in unincorporated areas folks are realizing outside of groundwater conservation districts like ours, there really aren't many entities that can manage or regulate what happens in those unincorporated areas,” Shaw said.
One tool the UTGCD has is the authority to issue, or not issue, permits for the drilling of water wells in the county.
“We know that groundwater resources in Parker County and in our entire district are limited, and as you move west they get more limited historically.” Shaw said. “So any entity, be it a dense residential development or be it commercial, somebody coming in and asking for 50 million gallons a year under a permit will kick off the requirement for them to do a very in-depth study. They're gonna have to go out, drill some wells, do an aquifer test, estimate the impacts of what they're proposing at, one year, 10 years, 30 years, 50 years. If those results are not ideal, then we're going to use that, and we're going to very likely limit what we ultimately permit them. Because our goal is to make sure that nobody comes in and does something that is going to change what people are already doing, right. Our goal is to protect the people that are here to continue to live the way we want to live, right.”
Shaw encourages residents who have questions or input to visit uppertrinitygcd.com or call 817-523-5200.
Data centers are also huge consumers of electricity. Mike Hoke, Director of Public Engagement at the Public Utility Commission (PUC) of Texas, said any business can connect to the state’s power grid.
“However, the legislature has given us recently specific authority over these largest data, largest power users, like data centers,” Hoke said.
Texas Senate Bill 6 gave the state additional tools to manage “large load” facilities like data centers. Enforced by the PUC, the bill requires entities that use 75 megawatts or more to pay 100 percent of interconnect cost; large loads must have technology to allow the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to curtail or disconnect their power during grid emergencies; extensive reviews of surplus electricity generated by the data center that goes back on the grid; and detailed forecasting and reporting.
The last invited speaker was Amanda Garner, district director for State Rep. Mike Olcott, who read a statement on Olcott’s behalf.
“I will do all I can to delay the development of data centers in our district until lawmakers return next session and have the opportunity to properly draft legislation that protects all Texans from the seen and unforeseen harms that these centers could potentially cause,” the statement said. “Technology tends to outpace regulations, and while I am opposed to over regulation by the government, I'm also opposed to trampling the rights of our citizens and compromising our property values and our access to adequate and affordable resources like water and energy.”
Olcott encourages the commissioners to form a sub regional planning commission . “This gives local governments the ability to demand state agencies coordinate to the fullest extent feasible. This means that state agencies must make their state plans and policies consistent with our local plans and policies, giving us or you the greatest opportunity to protect the health, safety, and welfare of our citizens.”
Following the speakers, the members of the court unanimously passed a resolution “calling for enhanced regulation of data centers in the State of Texas.”
Among its provisions, the resolution calls for the state to implement safeguards to:
In addition, the resolution came out against any tax abatements for data centers. Read the full resolution at www.community-news.com.
Numerous residents spoke following the actions by commissioners court. Among the opinions expressed by speakers were:
The next day, the Texas Tribune reported that Gov. Abbott now recommends “sweeping data center regulation, including eliminating sales tax exemption.”
The Tribune story (https://bit.ly/4e0zkvn) said Abbott want the legislature to look at the following items (some of which mirrored the points in Parker County’s resolution):
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