At a meeting of the Killeen Planning and Zoning Commission in late April, commissioners voted 4-0 against a $30 million data center project set to be built on the outskirts of the city.
The project was planned to occupy two and a half acres on South Fort Hood Street and was to be built by the company ONMINE. Board member Bear Jones was the only member to abstain from the vote.
ONMINE co-founders Ahmed and Ziyad Elgamal said the plant would be a “virtual power plant” and a “grid shock absorber,” working alongside the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to help the state’s energy infrastructure. Project representatives also denied any need for municipal water usage as the plant would apparently require only a synthetic coolant.
“For confirmation, you’re saying that you’re not using any water from Killeen, zero water, and it’s not even water that you’re using, it’s a coolant. It will not be leaked, drained, run off, no accidental spillage or anything into the little creek that’s over there by the bridge. So none of that,” Commissioner Scedric Moss clarified, to which the representative reportedly agreed.
Many residents spoke against the project in person at the meeting, citing noise pollution and possible incompetence as reasons for concern.
“This same engineering firm was also involved in other construction projects that is assisting them. It’s the same engineering firm that floods my property that for 2 years now has still not been fixed,” one Killeen resident stated.
A local pastor expressed concern that the noise pollution would disrupt his congregation: “It’s not just the building. It’s a place of worship, quiet reflection, prayer.” Data centers are known to generate up to 100 dBA of noise pollution, well above the OSHA prolonged exposure threshold of 85 dB.
“I think we tried to bring something that would be valuable to the city of Killeen,” an ONMINE representative said. “We’re going to be helping the city in multiple different ways, and this is what we tried to do.” Reportedly, the center was set to bring in just 14 full-time positions, another issue that caused some on the commission board to question the value of the data center.
The final decision on the data center zoning will be made by the Killeen City Council, using the commission’s vote as a recommendation.
