Doña Ana County Commissioners sued over Project Jupiter support

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico (KVIA) -- The New Mexico Environmental Law Center filed a lawsuit against the Doña Ana County Board of County Commissioners over their approval of three ordinances related to Project Jupiter, thew new data center planned for construction in Santa Teresa.

The center filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Empowerment Congress of Doña Ana County and two Santa Teresa Residents.

The lawsuit claims the three ordinances are unlawful. The first ordinance authorizes the county to issue $165 billion of Industrial Revenue Bonds as a tax incentive for Project Jupiter. The second ordinance allows the project to get funding from the New Mexico Local Economic Development Act (LEDA). A third ordinance provides LEDA funds for the project's anticipated permit fees. This is according to the New Mexico Environmental Law Center.

The plaintiffs are asking the court to review the County Board's adoption of the three ordinances, as well as a court order invalidating the adoption of the ordinances. They are also asking the court to pause the implementation of the ordinances for the duration of the lawsuit. The plaintiffs argue that the new data center will use a large amount of water and create a strain on area electricity grids.

ABC-7 reached out to Doña Ana County for comment on the new lawsuit. County staff said the were not able to comment on the legal action, as Doña Ana County has not been served with the lawsuit as of Monday.

"We do not have any information we can provide at this time," said a spokesperson for Doña Ana County.

ABC-7 also reached out to the two residents listed in the lawsuit; Jose Saldaña and Vivian Fuller. They are residents in Sunland Park and Santa Teresa, close to where the project is set to be built.

Fuller and Saldaña are both worried about the environmental impact of the project, hoping this lawsuit will allow them to give more information to the public.

"I was sad because the community's voices weren't heard. We're not being heard. We're not being told what's coming," said Fuller.

"If it's going to be a health concern for the residents of New Mexico, specifically the ones down south that are going to be living close to it, I'm going to stand up for the community," said Saldaña. "We just want everything to be done correctly."

ABC-7 reached out to Borderplex Digital, the company who is developing the project. They have not gotten back to us at this time.

Borderplex Digital's chairman Lanham Napier has spoken about the water issues in the past, however. Before the September 19th meeting voting on the project, Napier said they will be using less water than the Meta data center near Los Lunas, New Mexico, which is capped at 3 million gallons of water per day.

"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."

Find the court documents with details of the lawsuit below.