Lufkin community pleads for answers amid data center race

LUFKIN, Texas (KETK) — East Texas government leaders and state lawmakers say the community wishes to pause data center development to learn more about the facilities’ potential impacts on quality of life.

As data centers continue to set up shop across Texas, people are trying to understand what impact they could have on the rural communities East Texans call home. Many people have brought their concerns to Deep East Texas Council of Governments (DETCOG) Executive Director Lonnie Hunt, who says some residents feel data centers are moving in too fast.

“Most of our folks are just right now saying let’s call time out, let’s put the brakes on,” Hunt said. “Let’s pause, let’s make sure that we know all the facts.”

A rapid expansion that State Representative Joanne Shofner (R)- Nacogdoches says could be necessary if the U.S. wants to stay ahead of China in the global race for artificial intelligence.

“We don’t want them to be in charge of all of this; it would be just dangerous for a communist country to be in charge of most of the data that is going on around the world,” Shofner said.

That race is also leaving many East Texans with questions about the long-term impacts data centers could have on water, agriculture and their quality of life. Leaving them to turn to county leaders who have little authority to regulate the facilities.

“The only way a county could really have any influence over a data center would be to enter into some sort of agreement with them,” Hunt said.

Shofner says the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) does have some regulatory authority over data centers, but only after problems arise.

“Right now we don’t know what an issue is,” Shofner said.

Hunt says East Texans want to embrace new technology without sacrificing the rural way of life that defines the region.

“But we also want to protect our rural countryside and this lifestyle that we love out here in the Pineywoods of East Texas,” Hunt said.

He recommends anyone with concerns contact their state representative and make their voices heard before the legislature meets in Austin next year.