Cameron County residents said they’re still looking for answers over rumors of a data center coming to the area.

Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino Jr. confirmed to Channel 5 News that a company is looking at land near the Valley International Airport in Harlingen, but he said that the data center company has not submitted permit applications for building.

“As far as we know, they're not coming,” Trevino said. “They're just inquiring, they're looking."

Trevino said the county is doing its own research on data centers and the impact they could have on the surrounding environment. The judge said he's aware of people's concerns and criticisms of data centers involving large consumptions of water and electricity 

“If a company meets all of the statutory, regulatory requirements, federal requirements, obtains all of the resources needed, it's very difficult for the county to say ‘you can't operate here because we don't want you here,’” Trevino said.

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According to a UTRGV professor, data centers are usually considered "business decisions." Sociology professor Marla Perez Lugo said she’s been studying the environmental impacts of data centers.

“Data centers consume a lot of water and in a drought prone area like the Valley communities,” Lugo said. “The surrounding communities need to know how much water these data centers are going to be consuming and what is going to be the impact on their water."

Lugo said the computers within a data center would need high water usage for cooling because they generate a lot of heat. 

Metrobloks, an AI data center, posted on its website that it is developing an “AI-ready data center campus in South Texas” near McAllen.

During a special meeting held in September 2025, the Harlingen Waterworks System Board of Directors approved a "reclaimed water agreement" regarding the data center 

Lugo said she believes these type of decisions should include feedback from its surrounding communities

“In a vulnerable grid, a facility that is going to consume a lot of electricity would have a lot of impacts in neighboring communities,” Lugo said.

Channel 5 News reached out to the Harlingen Waterworks System for comment on Monday morning, but they did not respond by the time this story went on the air.

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