Data Centers Coming to Bowie County

0:00 · Both

The episode opens with Church on the Rock: a federal court blocked a California gender-secrecy law that lets schools hide a student’s confusion from parents. Pastor John Miller — the Bible gives parents, not state schools, the responsibility for raising kids. churchontherock.org.

1:21 · Zach

Hello and welcome to The Zach Rateliff Show. I’m Zach and this is Danny. We’re going to talk about data centers and what’s going on around our area. It’s a pretty big deal. We’re in forty states and thirteen countries now. Data centers are coming in all across the country. This subject will be relevant wherever somebody’s listening from.

2:05 · Danny

I’m Danny Proctor. I live out in the Leary area. Lifelong resident of Bowie County. I’ve lived out there twenty years. Small ranch — cows, donkeys, chickens. We enjoy country life out in the county.

3:36 · Zach

I just listed a place beside you — eight acres south on Leary Road. I was even thinking about all this with the data center and where that is. Right here on top of it.

3:11 · Danny

There’s a housing development just north on 2253 — about nine homes, three occupied, the rest for sale. Real estate agents have a duty now to inform potential buyers that a data center is proposed for the 600 acres literally across the street.

4:13 · Danny

In April we found out a landowner had sold 600 acres to Fort Worth Power Core, an affiliate of Black Mountain Energy. The proposal is a data center. They’ve received an air permit to build six natural-gas-fired generators and two steam-powered reclamation generators.

5:17 · Danny

Nobody knows a whole lot about any of this. It came in in the dark of night. County commissioners know less than the locals do.

8:00 · Danny

The aquifers in Bowie County cannot support the wells we already have plus a large industrial complex like a data center. We’re talking Marvin Nichols and regional water shortages. If this is inevitable, the company ought to pay for new treatment — but we’re putting the cart before the horse because the documents are redacted as proprietary.

12:33 · Danny

Texas law has stripped county commissioners of a lot of authority, so rural counties get targeted. Abbott said in Bullard a couple of weeks ago he wanted to ban data centers in rural Texas. It will take an executive order or a special session. He also received a $500,000 campaign contribution from Black Mountain. People are skeptical, and they should be.

14:08 · Danny

They applied for the generator permit February 16 and it was awarded March 11. Phase one is the generators. Phase two is the data center.

18:00 · Danny

Nobody should stop a man from selling his land. Nobody should be allowed to harm the neighbor on the other side of the fence either. My property is about half a mile from the site. The sacrifice zone is one to two miles.

22:00 · Danny

This isn’t one site. About 800 acres north of Hooks. TexAmericas. One on the Arkansas side. A 1,700-acre solar farm south of Texarkana by a German company. This is a pattern, not a rumor.

28:00 · Danny

People hear tax base and think schools and fire departments get paid. Then you hear about ten-year abatements. They build man camps. They don’t fill the hotels and cafés the way the brochure said. And the industry may overbuild — Texas is talking hundreds of these. China already has hundreds. What happens when the thing is obsolete and the water is gone?

34:00 · Danny

A Granbury-area site has been measured in the 80 to 140 decibel range. Vibration that makes people sick. Sites build their own substations. Generators are backup. There are Indian burial mounds and artifacts on this ground. Security runs people off. No transparency.

40:00 · Danny

Call Governor Abbott’s office. 512-463-2000 — that’s the switchboard — or 512-463-1782. Ask for a moratorium until this is studied. We have a petition with 572 signatures. The group meets Thursdays at 5:15 p.m. at the Dixie Diner. Even if it’s not in your backyard, your well could still lose water.

46:00 · Zach

Those numbers again: 512-463-2000 and 512-463-1782. Stay informed. Ask questions. Speak up. We’re going to get out of here. I hope God blesses each and every one of you today.