Sen. Perry defends data center growth
Senator Charles Perry defends data center growth in West Texas, asserting that these facilities are not draining water resources but are helping communities by funding new water infrastructure. He highlights examples in Childress and Turkey, Texas, where data center developers are contributing to local water supplies.
Senator Charles Perry of Texas defended the growth of data centers in West Texas, countering concerns that these facilities are depleting local water resources. Perry asserted that data center developers are actually helping communities by investing in new water infrastructure. He highlighted instances where towns are receiving water infrastructure they previously could not afford, courtesy of these projects.
Perry provided specific examples, noting that a data center in Childress, Texas, will contribute to the town's water supply. He explained that this facility, using 25,000 gallons of water a day within five years, will help fund a 975,000-gallon contribution to Childress's water supply, a town that was projected to run out of water by 2027. Similarly, he mentioned that the town of Turkey, Texas, is getting new water infrastructure and wells thanks to an AI data center.
The Senator emphasized that data centers are designing and implementing highly water-efficient systems, with many becoming "water contributors" rather than drains. He quantified the current projected water use for data centers in the U.S. at around 4,000 acre-feet, comparing it to Texas's total state water use of 17 million acre-feet. Perry concluded that these AI data centers are providing solutions to water problems that communities could not solve independently, asserting that they use little water and are "literally a solution to a problem."