Project Jupiter water usage questions persist following tax incentive vote
DOÑA ANA COUNTY, New Mexico (KVIA) -- The $165 billion Project Jupiter data center project is set to begin construction near Santa Teresa in southern New Mexico before the end of the year. But questions about how it will use resources, particularly water, are still of concern for some.
As ABC-7 reported, Doña Ana county commissioners voted 4-1 on Friday to approve a set of tax incentives as part of a performance agreement with BorderPlex Digital Assets, one of the companies behind the project.
The plot of land designated for the data center near the Santa Teresa port of entry doesn't feature much beyond dirt trails, desert shrubs and dumped trash for now. But it could become home to one of, if not the most expensive data center projects in the world.
"This would be the largest private investment in New Mexico history," said BorderPlex Digital Assets chairman Lanham Napier before the Doña Ana County Commissioners Friday. He discussed the outreach efforts and benefits of the project ahead of the vote to approve of the tax incentive agreement, which includes removal of property taxes in exchange for $12 million dollar yearly payments for 30 years.
The company also is required to provide at least 750 permanent jobs - and $50 million dollars in water infrastructure funding.
Community groups have concerns about the immediate and long-term impact of the project.
"This is a crazy amount of money," said Matthew Rodriguez with the Amanecer People's Project. The group is monitoring the progression of Project Jupiter and two other data center projects in the Borderland - one proposed by Meta in the northeast, and another in Socorro.
"What's going to happen? What are the protections in place?," Rodriguez said. "And how can we make sure that it's equitable and doesn't just trample on a lot of the climate provisions and water and land rights of southern New Mexico and El Paso?"
For comparison, other data center projects in New Mexico like the one operated by Meta in Los Lunas near Albuquerque is capped at a max of 3 million gallons of water per day.
BorderPlex Digital Assets is promising to use much less.
"During our community outreach meetings, we received a lot of questions related to water," Napier said. "The data center is committed to using a closed loop, air cooled design that Stack (Infrastructure) has deployed in several other locations. This means that once the design is filled, it recirculates. The daily operational water used will average 20,000 gallons per day."
Rodriguez says he's skeptical about that promise.
"I think no one would disagree that we need more investment, that we need more sustainable jobs," Rodriguez said. "But again, these companies specifically choose places where they can maximize profit. And so I think that if we're bringing in massive companies, massive investments, that there needs to be strong binding agreements that the community approves of and has input in so that we're not getting exploited by these massive companies."
