Locals sound alarm over data center

TOOL – On Thursday evening, Henderson County residents packed into the West Cedar Creek Municipal Utility District meeting, protesting a proposal from Diode Ventures, a Kansas?based company seeking to build a data center near Key Ranch Estates.

When the room filled beyond capacity, dozens stood outside in the rain, waiting for their turn to speak. Their message was unified and blunt: “Profit should be secondary to people’s welfare.”

Diode Ventures already has two solar projects sold in Texas, one in Fort Bend County and another in Hamilton County, and is developing a massive 900?plus?acre site in Red Oak, south of Dallas, called Weston Holladay Technology Park. The company says that the project will position it as a leader in data?center development in the state’s “growing digital market.”

The scale of what Diode might build in Henderson County remains unclear, but residents say they don’t need specifics to know the risks. Their chief concern: the enormous amount of water data centers require, and the possibility that Cedar Creek Lake, the community’s daily lifeline, could be depleted.

“Without even servicing that huge data center, we’re already at a level?three drought,” said Ashley Cook, a Cedar Creek property owner. “Imagine what that’s going to do. That’s going to put us into a level?five drought situation.”

For now, the utility district’s general manager says no action will be taken until a feasibility study is complete.

“There’s a lot that’s going into this that we’re looking into, so I want people to know that this isn’t even close to being a done deal or even close to signing a service agreement. We’ve got a long way to go.”