BrazosDog02 said:
Water not an issue.
Noise and light pollution is. You can see the lights blow up the sky at night for a few miles away, further if it's foggy.
Noise is audible within 1 mile. It's a constant humming, squealing, fan noise. Imagine a leaf blower droning at a constant rpm 24/7/365.
What used to be a nice rural area is wrecked.
Power not a problem because it's redundant from 3 co-ops. And there are 40 semi truck sized diesel generators that fire up during power outages. Those can be heard for a couple of miles away.
Jobs are only created through construction and the companies and employees aren't locals. Otherwise these sites usually have fewer cars in the lot than I have at my ranch and very little human activity.
Traffic is an issue during construction which takes close to a decade in phases to complete. Several people have been killed in accidents involving concrete and aggregate haulers.
Overall, sitting on the porch in the evening drinking bourbon is now a thing of the past and most 6 generation farms and ranches are now on the market for sale to whomever will buy.
Hopefully that answers your question about how people feel.
jja79 said:
Sorry that's been your experience. I've got 2 within a mile of me and no noise, no lights, no traffic and I only know they're there because I hear people complaining but they can't tell me why. Utility prices aren't any different than they were and no issues with water.
BrazosDog02 said:
Water not an issue.
Noise and light pollution is. You can see the lights blow up the sky at night for a few miles away, further if it's foggy.
Noise is audible within 1 mile. It's a constant humming, squealing, fan noise. Imagine a leaf blower droning at a constant rpm 24/7/365.
What used to be a nice rural area is wrecked.
Power not a problem because it's redundant from 3 co-ops. And there are 40 semi truck sized diesel generators that fire up during power outages. Those can be heard for a couple of miles away.
Jobs are only created through construction and the companies and employees aren't locals. Otherwise these sites usually have fewer cars in the lot than I have at my ranch and very little human activity.
Traffic is an issue during construction which takes close to a decade in phases to complete. Several people have been killed in accidents involving concrete and aggregate haulers.
Overall, sitting on the porch in the evening drinking bourbon is now a thing of the past and most 6 generation farms and ranches are now on the market for sale to whomever will buy.
Hopefully that answers your question about how people feel.
gkaggie08 said:
I don't live next to one, yet, but there is one going up 50 miles from me. This is rural West Texas. People I know there tell me the traffic is absolutely horrible. A trip across town used to take 5 minutes, now it's 30.
The worst I've heard has been gravel trucks. Those guys are being paid by the load and DGAF about traffic laws, roadway etiquette, nothing. There have been several wrecks due to these trucks.
You put 3000 workers in a town of 2500, resources get stretched beyond their limits
jja79 said:
Sorry that's been your experience. I've got 2 within a mile of me and no noise, no lights, no traffic and I only know they're there because I hear people complaining but they can't tell me why. Utility prices aren't any different than they were and no issues with water.
gkaggie08 said:
I don't live next to one, yet, but there is one going up 50 miles from me. This is rural West Texas. People I know there tell me the traffic is absolutely horrible. A trip across town used to take 5 minutes, now it's 30.
The worst I've heard has been gravel trucks. Those guys are being paid by the load and DGAF about traffic laws, roadway etiquette, nothing. There have been several wrecks due to these trucks.
You put 3000 workers in a town of 2500, resources get stretched beyond their limits
Jbob04 said:jja79 said:
Sorry that's been your experience. I've got 2 within a mile of me and no noise, no lights, no traffic and I only know they're there because I hear people complaining but they can't tell me why. Utility prices aren't any different than they were and no issues with water.
Well clearly they are different in Texas because the ones here are loud as **** and bright as ****.
Jbob04 said:jja79 said:
Sorry that's been your experience. I've got 2 within a mile of me and no noise, no lights, no traffic and I only know they're there because I hear people complaining but they can't tell me why. Utility prices aren't any different than they were and no issues with water.
Well clearly they are different in Texas because the ones here are loud as **** and bright as ****.
ts5641 said:
There's a lot online about this. Read about the one in Granbury. People experiencing all kinds of symptoms as well as their pets.
ts5641 said:
There's a lot online about this. Read about the one in Granbury. People experiencing all kinds of symptoms as well as their pets.
HumpitPuryear said:
I live in a rural area and grew up in a small west Texas town. I've witnessed quite a few infrastructure dust ups over the years. It's interesting what "6th generation farmers and ranchers" find offensive to the landscape. I didn't see much pushback when oil companies were cutting roads, pipelines, and flattening hills for rig platforms or punching holes to get at millions of gallons of water for fracking. When the windmill guys came with their surface use contracts land owners lined up for that easy money. Data centers are much less intrusive.than windmills which are an absolute abomination and don't use near the volume of water as fracking. Yet we have this dire concern from staunch stewards of the land about data centers. Curious. I wonder why?
ts5641 said:
There's a lot online about this. Read about the one in Granbury. People experiencing all kinds of symptoms as well as their pets.
Kyle Field Shade Chaser said:
Hotels in areas where data center are being built have gone from $130/ night to about $$300-$400 / night.
See Abilene, TX.
To whom it may concern and to everyone else as well, pic.twitter.com/GQxuxUj3ie
— Willie Nelson (@WillieNelson) July 28, 2026
gkaggie08 said:
I don't live next to one, yet, but there is one going up 50 miles from me. This is rural West Texas. People I know there tell me the traffic is absolutely horrible. A trip across town used to take 5 minutes, now it's 30.
The worst I've heard has been gravel trucks. Those guys are being paid by the load and DGAF about traffic laws, roadway etiquette, nothing. There have been several wrecks due to these trucks.
You put 3000 workers in a town of 2500, resources get stretched beyond their limits
KatyAggie2000 said:
Wow. That's shocking. What is the expected overall impact to ERCOT? I assume this has been studied, etc. Well then again, probably not knowing ERCOT leadership. But I can only imagine the pull on the grid / water tables from all of these data centers.
