Sinton, TX Fighting Corpus Christi Groundwater Plan, Potentially Because It Wants A Data Center Of Its Own

[hatrack]

Corpus Christi needs the groundwater beneath the small town of Sinton so urgently that it’s already laying pipeline, even before it has the permits to start drilling for water. Sinton, with 5,500 residents about half an hour north, is fighting those permits in court, citing concerns for its own water supply. But leaders in Corpus Christi, which supplies water to half a million people, now suggest an ulterior motive: Sinton wants a thirsty, new complex of data centers.

Officials and executives in Corpus Christi point to recent land deals, well permits and a rezoning ordinance as evidence for the data center plans. Officials in Sinton neither confirm nor deny Corpus Christi’s supposition. “It is rumors,” said John Hobson, Sinton’s city manager, declining to say whether or not it is true. Everyone involved in the deal probably signed non-disclosure agreements, said Greg Ellis, an attorney for the San Patricio Groundwater Conservation District, which is based in Sinton and issued the drilling permits in dispute.“Seems like it’s gotten out anyway,” he said. “I find the rumor very believable.”

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John Michael, vice president of the engineering firm Hanson Professional Services and a former Sinton city engineer, also believes the data center plans are real. He heard from “very credible sources” that the project was “worth several billion dollars” and could require more than three million gallons per day of water. Sinton relies on local groundwater and currently uses less than one million gallons per day, Michael said. “Let’s hold all of our regional system hostage while they wait for their data center,” he said. Michael, who built Sinton’s current water supply in the 1980s, pointed to an April 21 ordinance by the Sinton City Council that rezoned 1,000 acres of agricultural land—the size of 756 standard American football fields—to industrial.

“No city would ever do that unless somebody needed them to,” Michael said. Last year, regional power provider AEP acquired a 12-acre adjacent parcel and announced plans to build a substation, and the San Patricio County Groundwater Conservation District issued a drilling permit to the City of Sinton within the newly rezoned tract. (The groundwater district’s general manager, Lonnie Stewart, said he hadn’t heard about any data center.) “Apparently the city plans to sell groundwater to the data center, so they don’t want the City of Corpus Christi to get the permits they need,” said James Dodson, a former director of the Corpus Christi water department and a retired consultant who worked on Corpus Christi’s groundwater project near Sinton.

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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/19052026/corpus-christi-emergency-water-supply-delays/

[highplainsdem]

1. The AI industry is busy creating nightmares in rural America. But in this case it can directly impact a city's

water supply. Hope this gets a lot of coverage.