YouBet said:

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I actually somehow missed the second picture on that post with the average decibel level readings.

Also, I don't appreciate you bringing complex math into this discussion. Take it to the Math board, nerd.

---

Hey, I got a 'D' in Math 252 and 253 [Eng calculus], AND a 'D in DiffEq.
I can do maths...

insulator_king said:

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YouBet said:

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I actually somehow missed the second picture on that post with the average decibel level readings.

Also, I don't appreciate you bringing complex math into this discussion. Take it to the Math board, nerd.

---

Hey, I got a 'D' in Math 252 and 253 [Eng calculus], AND a 'D in DiffEq.
I can do maths...

---

I had eng calc 1, 2 & 3. Don't remember the numbers. Got a D in one and an A and a B in the others.

From what i've heard, thank God I didn't have to take Diff'eq.

I had to take PChem, tho. I had nightmares for years about that class.

YouBet said:

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Walls?! Are we going to put farmers in cages now too?

I guess I've always been dubious of a concrete wall actually cutting sound that much. So it can cut 100 decibels immediately?

---

https://library.ctr.utexas.edu/ctr-publications/0-1471-4.pdf

You are overestimating what a wall is capable of reducing.

Here's the best explanation of how walls reduce the dBA.

Quote:

---

images below

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GeorgiAg said:

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insulator_king said:

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YouBet said:

---

I actually somehow missed the second picture on that post with the average decibel level readings.

Also, I don't appreciate you bringing complex math into this discussion. Take it to the Math board, nerd.

---

Hey, I got a 'D' in Math 252 and 253 [Eng calculus], AND a 'D in DiffEq.
I can do maths...

---

I had eng calc 1, 2 & 3. Don't remember the numbers. Got a D in one and an A and a B in the others.

From what i've heard, thank God I didn't have to take Diff'eq.

I had to take PChem, tho. I had nightmares for years about that class.

---

This was 80/81 & 81/82.

I ain't bringing up the MechE classes I took....
.
.
.
.
.
.

2x

I did my part in dragging down the Corps GPA.

insulator_king said:

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GeorgiAg said:

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insulator_king said:

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YouBet said:

---

I actually somehow missed the second picture on that post with the average decibel level readings.

Also, I don't appreciate you bringing complex math into this discussion. Take it to the Math board, nerd.

---

Hey, I got a 'D' in Math 252 and 253 [Eng calculus], AND a 'D in DiffEq.
I can do maths...

---

I had eng calc 1, 2 & 3. Don't remember the numbers. Got a D in one and an A and a B in the others.

From what i've heard, thank God I didn't have to take Diff'eq.

I had to take PChem, tho. I had nightmares for years about that class.

---

This was 80/81 & 81/82.

I ain't bringing up the MechE classes I took....
.
.
.
.
.
.

2x

I did my part in dragging down the Corps GPA.

---

But now that I'm a lawyer, I use all that Calc and Chemistry every day!

I went through a lot of pain and suffering for nothing.

I have a little insight in Vista Ridge, and mostly opinion. Although I was not on the project, I did work at SAWS when that project finally went public. It predates Data Center explosion by a long while.

Vista Ridge is the price San Antonio and, now unfortunately, Burleson County has to pay for the short-sightedness of San Antonio and SAWS predecessors decades ago. They passed up countless opportunities to diversify the city water supply because they thought they sat on a limitless supply from The Edwards Aquifer. They passed up chances to secure water from Canyon Lake and self-built lake because they thought the Edwards would always be there. Then in the 1990s the Edwards became highly, highly regulated for environmental reasons. Suddenly SAWS didn't have a limitless supply of water. They have diversified in bits and pieces and even developed an extensive water reuse program, but they knew there would eventually be a reckoning. They have tried to develop other sources in the region only to piss off just about everyone. Their only alternative was to get water from 150 miles away and pump it uphill. All because San Antonio was too cocky decades ago.

insulator_king said:

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YouBet said:

---

I actually somehow missed the second picture on that post with the average decibel level readings.

Also, I don't appreciate you bringing complex math into this discussion. Take it to the Math board, nerd.

---

Hey, I got a 'D' in Math 252 and 253 [Eng calculus], AND a 'D in DiffEq.
I can do maths...

---

I Q dropped Trigonometry. I have no idea what language you are even throwing at me here.

Now, I can do real math that people actually use in day-to-day life, but none of this theoretical mumbo jumbo y'all are talking about.

This might as well be quantum mechanics, or Chinese.

bobbranco said:

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YouBet said:

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Walls?! Are we going to put farmers in cages now too?

I guess I've always been dubious of a concrete wall actually cutting sound that much. So it can cut 100 decibels immediately?

---

https://library.ctr.utexas.edu/ctr-publications/0-1471-4.pdf

You are overestimating what a wall is capable of reducing.

Here's the best explanation of how walls reduce the dBA.

Quote:

---

images below

---

---

"Hand Calculations of Insertion Loss"

OSHA guidelines limit equipment sound levels to 85 dBA at 1 meter and general industry guidelines are 70 dBA at the site boundary. As for how sound behaves in free air, there is typically a 6 dB loss ever time you double the distance from the source. So if an 85 dBA source is 10 meters from the site boundary (and is 70 dBA at the boundary) then 20 meters from the source (or 10 meters from the boundary) would be about 70-6=64 dBA. At 40 meters (or 30 meters from the boundary) it would be 64-6=58 dBA. Then 52 dBA at 80 meters, 46 at 160 meters, etc.

Note that ambient noise levels below 45 dBA are very difficult to find due to natural or other manmade sources (wind, birds, crickets…)

That does sound frustrating, both within that organization and outside of it. I understand that needs increase year to year, you can't avoid it. I don't have experience of working in a department that is forecasting future demand and how to cost effectively satisfy it, is it like a bloated whale that doesn't respond to direction changes? I'm not sure if I am correct, but it certainly seems like to be there is more complacency and obvious ineptitude regarding large expenditures for public utilities by city governments. Those responsible for making decisions at the time of this or any other project need to be held responsible.

insulator_king said:

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I did my part in dragging down the Corps GPA.

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Redass!

I did such a great job at Corps/Band/Army that my GPA was a full 1.0 lower than my wife's.

You used something from utexas dot edu as a reference?

HollywoodBQ said:

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insulator_king said:

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I did my part in dragging down the Corps GPA.

---

Redass!

I did such a great job at Corps/Band/Army that my GPA was a full 1.0 lower than my wife's.

---

I had a buddy who spoke Spanish but failed Spanish. He also sold his books back before finals because he ran out of drinking money. He had to transfer to Blinn.

HoldMyBeer said:

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OSHA guidelines limit equipment sound levels to 85 dBA at 1 meter and general industry guidelines are 70 dBA at the site boundary. As for how sound behaves in free air, there is typically a 6 dB loss ever time you double the distance from the source. So if an 85 dBA source is 10 meters from the site boundary (and is 70 dBA at the boundary) then 20 meters from the source (or 10 meters from the boundary) would be about 70-6=64 dBA. At 40 meters (or 30 meters from the boundary) it would be 64-6=58 dBA. Then 52 dBA at 80 meters, 46 at 160 meters, etc.

Note that ambient noise levels below 45 dBA are very difficult to find due to natural or other manmade sources (wind, birds, crickets…)

---

85 dBA is where OSHA requires hearing protection and noise monitoring. I suspect the noise level from these things is much higher.

But to your point, why are they building these things so close to the property line? It seems they should be more isolated on larger plots of land to reduce the amount of noise pollution reaching surrounding land owners.

bobbranco said:

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gkaggie08 said:

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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

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Gravel trucks will not be travelling the highways when the datacenter is complete. And I don't think 3000 workers is required to operate a datacenter. It's probably no more than 300.

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Gravel trucks means it's being built, genius. It takes 3000 or so to build structures of that scale.

twelve12twelve said:

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bobbranco said:

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gkaggie08 said:

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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

---

Gravel trucks will not be travelling the highways when the datacenter is complete. And I don't think 3000 workers is required to operate a datacenter. It's probably no more than 300.

---

Gravel trucks means it's being built, genius. It takes 3000 or so to build structures of that scale.

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If your reading skills improve you could realize you duplicated my statement.

HollywoodBQ said:

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You used something from utexas dot edu as a reference?

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It's TxDOT.

Watch listed

Hassett: "Data centers are very good for towns, because they create so many jobs and bring people in with high incomes that can buy houses and stuff like that. So if you take a sleepy town that hasn't seen much in the last 30 years and put a data center there, there are gonna be… pic.twitter.com/K1gymIK2Bw

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 31, 2026

That's bull****

Jbob04 said:

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That's bull****

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Fox News is the last bastion of straight shooting journalism.

It is quite the conundrum.

We need the data centers in the US and not in China. Period. Large cities are FULL of data centers. It's smart to diversify them across the state. They should be responsible for generating their own electricity and figure out a way to not use as much water as they use. HOWEVER...let's take a step back and figure out how towns like McKinney and Frisco wound up the way they are.

The state of Texas grants tech companies tax free plots of land for 20-25 years so that "jobs" can be created in an area. Let's use Austin as an example. 30 years ago, Austin was the 5th/6th largest city in Texas. What did Perry, then Abbott start doing? "Hey Apple, build your tech center in Austin! You'll bring a ton of jobs to the area." There were no guarantees who got those jobs, but those jobs were created. And those tech jobs couldn't be filled with US born and raised engineers and developers, so Apple, Google, Indeed, etc, have to go to India/Pakistan other parts of the world/ to fill those roles. Sure the economy sees a housing boom. Apple gets cheaper labor. HEB sells all of their stuff. But then more infrastructure has to be built to support those new citizens. Schools are now split evenly 50 white/Hispanic with 50 Asian. Do you see a pattern here? Same thing happened in McKinney and Frisco. We, as a society, never forced assimilation.

While I know we need data centers, the State is behaving like they aren't culpable in all of this bull***** They allowed tech to come to our state for FREE, change our culture and our demographics, and act like we are being invaded. They never bothered to put guardrails in place to keep things in check. As a part-time rural West Texas resident, I see the local hotel in our little town of 1500 people packed every night as workers are in town to help build the data center in Fisher County. I also see the boom that is happening with one of the local ISD's because of the influx of proposed tax dollars that should come in for the new residents. HOWEVER, there are NO guarantees that the new residents/jobs will go to Americans.

And let's be honest, no one would be giving a **** about this if it wasn't an election year.

As someone who works in construction, I can tell you the labor force for these data centers includes a F--- ton of undocumented workers. Maybe not later as the projects get 80% completed, but during the initial prep, security fencing, flat work, etc, there are no less than 200 30 year old trucks with shattered windshield, no tail pipes, missing license plates, and Ranger pickups with a mound of tools and junk in the bed. No one on site speaks English. That's why i said crime increases. Typically what they do is come to work and phone a friend to explain the layout, where the good stuff is, neighbors that have nice things, etc. That stuff gets stolen early morning. Those data centers serve as anchors, surrounding areas go to strip centers and gas stations and, which of course brings even more crime and societal dregs.

Data centers arent hiring local small town workers. They aren't creating local jobs at all. **** these damn things and anyone associated with them.

My family has a chunk of very rural timberland in South Georgia. I would welcome a data center.

BrazosDog02 said:

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As someone who works in construction, I can tell you the labor force for these data centers includes a F--- ton of undocumented workers. Maybe not later as the projects get 80% completed, but during the initial prep, security fencing, flat work, etc, there are no less than 200 30 year old trucks with shattered windshield, no tail pipes, missing license plates, and Ranger pickups with a mound of tools and junk in the bed. No one on site speaks English. That's why i said crime increases. Typically what they do is come to work and phone a friend to explain the layout, where the good stuff is, neighbors that have nice things, etc. That stuff gets stolen early morning. Those data centers serve as anchors, surrounding areas go to strip centers and gas stations and, which of course brings even more crime and societal dregs.

---

Agreed. Your state government has betrayed you and the rest of us for optics

bobbranco said:

---

twelve12twelve said:

---

bobbranco said:

---

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

---

Gravel trucks will not be travelling the highways when the datacenter is complete. And I don't think 3000 workers is required to operate a datacenter. It's probably no more than 300.

---

Gravel trucks means it's being built, genius. It takes 3000 or so to build structures of that scale.

---

If your reading skills improve you could realize you duplicated my statement.

---

Sure, I made the mistake. You keep doing you. Lmao.

BrazosDog02 said:

---

As someone who works in construction, I can tell you the labor force for these data centers includes a F--- ton of undocumented workers. Maybe not later as the projects get 80% completed, but during the initial prep, security fencing, flat work, etc, there are no less than 200 30 year old trucks with shattered windshield, no tail pipes, missing license plates, and Ranger pickups with a mound of tools and junk in the bed. No one on site speaks English. That's why i said crime increases. Typically what they do is come to work and phone a friend to explain the layout, where the good stuff is, neighbors that have nice things, etc. That stuff gets stolen early morning. Those data centers serve as anchors, surrounding areas go to strip centers and gas stations and, which of course brings even more crime and societal dregs.

---

As someone who worked in construction for HB Zachry Co. nka Zachry Construction during '83-'85 I can tell you that the labor force demographic is similar, if not the same and probably has been for decades. Jobsite security has always been an issue for construction materials. None of this is unique to Data Centers but comes with construction regardless of whether it is residential or commercial.

Charpie said:

---

It is quite the conundrum.

We need the data centers in the US and not in China. Period. Large cities are FULL of data centers. It's smart to diversify them across the state. They should be responsible for generating their own electricity and figure out a way to not use as much water as they use. HOWEVER...let's take a step back and figure out how towns like McKinney and Frisco wound up the way they are.

The state of Texas grants tech companies tax free plots of land for 20-25 years so that "jobs" can be created in an area. Let's use Austin as an example. 30 years ago, Austin was the 5th/6th largest city in Texas. What did Perry, then Abbott start doing? "Hey Apple, build your tech center in Austin! You'll bring a ton of jobs to the area." There were no guarantees who got those jobs, but those jobs were created. And those tech jobs couldn't be filled with US born and raised engineers and developers, so Apple, Google, Indeed, etc, have to go to India/Pakistan other parts of the world/ to fill those roles. Sure the economy sees a housing boom. Apple gets cheaper labor. HEB sells all of their stuff. But then more infrastructure has to be built to support those new citizens. Schools are now split evenly 50 white/Hispanic with 50 Asian. Do you see a pattern here? Same thing happened in McKinney and Frisco. We, as a society, never forced assimilation.

While I know we need data centers, the State is behaving like they aren't culpable in all of this bull***** They allowed tech to come to our state for FREE, change our culture and our demographics, and act like we are being invaded. They never bothered to put guardrails in place to keep things in check. As a part-time rural West Texas resident, I see the local hotel in our little town of 1500 people packed every night as workers are in town to help build the data center in Fisher County. I also see the boom that is happening with one of the local ISD's because of the influx of proposed tax dollars that should come in for the new residents. HOWEVER, there are NO guarantees that the new residents/jobs will go to Americans.

And let's be honest, no one would be giving a **** about this if it wasn't an election year.

---

Maybe it was parents who failed (don't give a crap) and allowed little Johnny and Betty to wile away their youth on stupid college dreams and miss out on opportunity. Not the state government. My point is that culture defines us not tax breaks. I have explored many small towns in the hopes to relocate and cannot miss observing the atrophied small towns in the huge counties. The "tweaker town" vibes from most if not all have prevented me from making the leap.

For instance Fisher county, all 3,700 of them, may have hit the lotto with the datacenter. 70% white. Live in an area of 902 sq mi. In 1910 there were 12,600 in county, by 1930 there were 13,600 in county. And in 1970 the population was 6,300.

And crime is rampant in rural counties. Roby is the county seat, a red high crime area per the website below.

Nothing new with the boom and bust economy. Life is not fair. Hope the rural areas can succeed but we are a free country and people make choices.

https://crimegrade.org/safest-places-in-texas/

Aggie Spirit said:

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BrazosDog02 said:

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As someone who works in construction, I can tell you the labor force for these data centers includes a F--- ton of undocumented workers. Maybe not later as the projects get 80% completed, but during the initial prep, security fencing, flat work, etc, there are no less than 200 30 year old trucks with shattered windshield, no tail pipes, missing license plates, and Ranger pickups with a mound of tools and junk in the bed. No one on site speaks English. That's why i said crime increases. Typically what they do is come to work and phone a friend to explain the layout, where the good stuff is, neighbors that have nice things, etc. That stuff gets stolen early morning. Those data centers serve as anchors, surrounding areas go to strip centers and gas stations and, which of course brings even more crime and societal dregs.

---

As someone who worked in construction for HB Zachry Co. nka Zachry Construction during '83-'85 I can tell you that the labor force demographic is similar, if not the same and probably has been for decades. Jobsite security has always been an issue for construction materials. None of this is unique to Data Centers but comes with construction regardless of whether it is residential or commercial.

---

Roving bands of thieves comprising all races steal construction materials.

BrazosDog02 said:

---

As someone who works in construction, I can tell you the labor force for these data centers includes a F--- ton of undocumented workers. Maybe not later as the projects get 80% completed, but during the initial prep, security fencing, flat work, etc, there are no less than 200 30 year old trucks with shattered windshield, no tail pipes, missing license plates, and Ranger pickups with a mound of tools and junk in the bed. No one on site speaks English. That's why i said crime increases. Typically what they do is come to work and phone a friend to explain the layout, where the good stuff is, neighbors that have nice things, etc. That stuff gets stolen early morning. Those data centers serve as anchors, surrounding areas go to strip centers and gas stations and, which of course brings even more crime and societal dregs.

---

Then start going after the GCs for this crap. If I can't hire undocumented workers in my shop, my competitor shouldn't be allowed to.

Illegals. They're called illegals.

HumpitPuryear said:

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Trump recently issued some order that DCs would be required to provide their own generation. I don't recall if that was an EO or if it really had much teeth to it. Trump, and a lot of others, are pushing DCs towards running on SMRs (small modular reactors). We are in an arms race with China on SMRs and they are a priority of the Trump administration.

Expect China to wage war on the social media front on this as it becomes more public, just as they are now on DCs in general. If you think DCs are controversial now, just wait until SMRs enter the chat. China will be ginning up plenty of FUD around SMRs. It's important to remember that a lot of this publicity is not grassroots but rather generated by our enemies, with plenty of participation from the usual useful idiots.

---

Yes I expect the rhetoric around this to be loud and shrill. And China will be funding some of it.

A positive that might come out of the DC and general AI investment boom is breaking the stalemate around nuclear power.

Nuclear has been strongly opposed by a mix of environmentalists, bureaucrats, industrial establishment, and
Malthusians for decades. Some that led the charge to ban it in the 70s have shuffled off this mortal coil.

There are some Texas and A&M ties to all this:

https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/idahos-high-desert-becomes-hot-spot-nuclear-power-revolution


Deployable founder and CEO Bobby Gallagher hauled Unity's reactor core, designed to fit in a 20-foot shipping container, from Texas to Idaho in a Ford F-150 pickup bed, proving its portability just by showing up at the lab.

The high-temperature, water-moderated, helium-cooled one-megawatt reactor - generating enough to power around 800 homes - is fueled with standard low enriched uranium, was built in partnership with Texas A&M University, and has drawn more than $10 billion in letter-of-interest queries "ranging from data centers to remote island community power," it maintains.

Aggie Spirit said:

---

BrazosDog02 said:

---

As someone who works in construction, I can tell you the labor force for these data centers includes a F--- ton of undocumented workers. Maybe not later as the projects get 80% completed, but during the initial prep, security fencing, flat work, etc, there are no less than 200 30 year old trucks with shattered windshield, no tail pipes, missing license plates, and Ranger pickups with a mound of tools and junk in the bed. No one on site speaks English. That's why i said crime increases. Typically what they do is come to work and phone a friend to explain the layout, where the good stuff is, neighbors that have nice things, etc. That stuff gets stolen early morning. Those data centers serve as anchors, surrounding areas go to strip centers and gas stations and, which of course brings even more crime and societal dregs.

---

As someone who worked in construction for HB Zachry Co. nka Zachry Construction during '83-'85 I can tell you that the labor force demographic is similar, if not the same and probably has been for decades. Jobsite security has always been an issue for construction materials. None of this is unique to Data Centers but comes with construction regardless of whether it is residential or commercial.

---

Building in a city whose crime level goes up .02% is not the same as building in the country where our crime goes up 100%.