Lacy Lakeview and data center developer Infrakey are moving ahead with plans for a $10 billion data campus near Ross, but significant hurdles remain on the road to completion.
Questions remain not only about the impact of the controversial project, but the ability of project leaders to secure the necessary electricity, water and political support.
Here are three threads to track as the project and the debate surrounding it evolve.
Power use and pollution
The electrical demand of AI data processing is gargantuan, with the largest planned facilities requiring as much energy as major U.S. cities.
Infrakey’s proposed 520-acre data center would be the largest electrical user in McLennan County at around one gigawatt of energy demand.
Under normal operating conditions, the facility will draw power from the grid via high-capacity transmission lines running through the area, Lacy Lakeview Mayor Charles Wilson said.
Infrakey also plans for an onsite 1.2-gigawatt gas-fired plant further down the line. The gas plant would make the facility resilient to disruptions caused by storms, Wilson told the Bridge this week, while providing backup electricity for rural residents.
“They can dump 300 megawatts into the grid,” Wilson said. “So for the residents of Ross, this means they’re going to have backup energy. They’re never going to be without power.”
However, existing gas lines available near the project site are not large enough to supply a gas-fired plant, Infrakey official Sujeeth Draksharam told the Bridge.
The company is exploring the possibility of a 19-20 mile gas line extending down from the Hillsboro area to meet those needs, Draksharam said.
Opponents of the data center, as well as Waco City Manager Bradley Ford, said the air pollution impact of a gas-fired plant warrant serious consideration because it could affect air quality in surrounding communities.
Among other pollutants, gas-fired plants generate nitrogen oxides that contribute to the formation of harmful ozone smog. Waco was at risk of failing federal smog pollution standards in the early 2010s, though readings have improved with the closure of gas and coal power plants in the region.
Any gas-fired generation will require permitting through the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).
How much water, from where?
A key challenge facing data centers throughout the country is their enormous appetite for water and finding a supply large enough to sate it. Like our brains, the stacks of computer chips in data centers require coolant to regulate their temperature.
Infrakey’s 520-acre campus proposed near Ross may need 15 to 16 million gallons a day at full buildout, according to Lacy Lakeview’s Tuesday agreement with the company. That’s roughly half the water consumed daily by the city of Waco on average, or about equal to Waco’s total daily consumption in winter months.
Lacy Lakeview relies on Waco for treated water, with a contract of 2.6 million gallons a day. The city depends on the Waco Metropolitan-Area Regional Sewerage System to pipe its wastewater to the central treatment plant on the Brazos River. Waco owns that system and plant and controls the use of its treated effluent.
On a Tuesday call with The Waco Bridge, Wilson said the data center’s total use could spike as high as 20 million gallons a day when the facility’s gas-fired plant is active, but typical water usage would be much lower.
Infrakey hopes to build an onsite plant to treat municipal wastewater, using the cleaned-up water for its needs. Wastewater treatment would be subject to a state permitting process through the TCEQ.
The company also promised to deploy “closed loop” cooling technology to further improve efficiency of water use.
But Lacy Lakeview’s existing supply of wastewater is only sufficient for the first phase of operation. Waco wastewater would likely be needed for the campus to expand to its full scope, as the Bridge reported previously.
“It’s a dramatic amount of water,” said Waco City Manager Bradley Ford after the Tuesday meeting.
Lacy Lakeview already plans to buy 665,000 gallons a day of cleaned wastewater from the city of Waco, according to a regional water plan, but that would require partnering with Waco and Bellmead to build a new pipeline.
Estimates for the project’s water needs have varied significantly. Draksharam and Wilson say that is because the project is in an early planning stage.
Ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, Draksharam said the 15-16 million gallon number reflected the total capacity of new water infrastructure to the project area, not the facility’s actual expected use, which he said could be less than 3 million gallons a day due to water reuse technology.
Wilson mentioned water from Lake Whitney as an option for supplemental supplies. The Brazos River Authority and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have launched a study of reallocating Lake Whitney storage historically used for hydroelectric power generation.
Draksharam said the company was exploring “how we can augment (supplies) with fresh water,” though the emphasis remained on deploying “new (reuse) technology so that we don’t use more of the resources.”
Officials with the project have not mentioned groundwater as an option for the project. Lacy Lakeview is not allowed to use groundwater under its contract with Waco. In McLennan County, any new use of groundwater would have to be approved by the Southern Trinity Groundwater District, which would have to determine that there is adequate water available.
Tension with neighbors, Waco
The Lacy Lakeview data center project has seen a backlash from surrounding residents in the Elm Mott, Ross and Gholson areas and beyond, and an online petition against it has more than 1,900 signatures.
Meanwhile, officials in neighboring Waco have expressed concern that Lacy Lakeview leaders did not inform them of the proposed deal to annex and provide utilities to the site. To allow Lacy Lakeview to annex the city, Infrakey would use a new state law to remove itself from Waco’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, where cities have traditionally had annexation control.
Last week, State Rep. Pat Curry, R-Waco, joined opponents in a Sunday evening strategy meeting in Ross where he complained of a lack of transparency. Opponents packed Tuesday’s meeting of the Lacy Lakeview City Council, which voted 6-1 for a nonbinding memorandum of understanding with Infrakey. Waco City Manager Bradley Ford attended the meeting and afterwards called the lack of communication “highly unusual.“
Waco Mayor Jim Holmes said Wednesday that he would be open to Waco partnering with a data center in the future, but only with a developer “who gets out in front of the project, understands the permitting, understands the public communication a little better and helps people understand the plan.”
“It just doesn’t seem like we’re seeing that with this one,” Holmes said, adding that a company’s track record of producing similar projects and its ability to finance them are also key considerations for Waco.
Wilson, the Lacy Lakeview mayor, said a town hall meeting on the Infrakey project is a possibility in the future, Wilson told the Bridge Tuesday.
Draksharam of Infrakey added: “Public transparency is essential for any project’s success,”
McLennan County is also considering a memorandum of understanding with Infrakey that could include infrastructure and tax incentives, County Judge Scott Felton has said.
The data center would likely face several state permitting processes, including Texas Commission on Environmental Quality permits for wastewater and stormwater.
A new gas-fired power plant would require air quality permits that would require public input. The state process offers affected parties the opportunity to call for a trial-like contested case hearing on potential harm from the project.
This story first appeared in The Waco Bridge. To get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for the Waco Bridge newsletter at wacobridge.org/newsletter.
