A new data center is on its way to the Wichita Falls area.
Wichita County Commissioners on Tuesday will consider renaming some private roads on Old Gun Club Road east of Electra for the purpose of establishing emergency services for a man camp.
Man camps are the common term for temporary housing set up for construction workers at new data center construction sites.
Commissioner Jeff Watts said the camp would house about 50 mobile homes near some warehouses that are part of an effort to build a data center near Oklaunion, a few miles farther west in Wilbarger County.
Watts said he has been told search engine giant Google will build the data center at the site of the old Oklaunion power plant, which is now owned by Oklaunion Power Station.
“There is a great big production going out there,” Watts said.
Other man camps are being established, he said.“They are taking up a whole lot of space putting trailers in over there for people to live in while they work,” the commissioner said.
He said one landlord in Electra told him there was no longer any inventory of rental houses because of all the bustle. Watts said one restaurant in the town of 2,300 is constantly busy.
“You couldn’t wedge another pickup in there,” Watts said of the restaurant. “A little RV park south of town on Highway 25 is all packed in there like sardines. It seems like it’s got that town booming.”
Wichita Falls Assistant City Manager Paul Menzies said Oklaunion Power Station has approached the city about amending an existing contract for use of water from Lake Kemp for construction of a data center, but he had no confirmation on who would own it.
In September 2023, the Wichita Falls City Council voted to sell up to 20,000 acre-feet of water annually from Lake Kemp to OPS for the company to resell to a large hydrogen plant planned for the Oklaunion site.
The promoters of that plant eventually backed out.
Menzies said the city is having discussions with OPS, but “we haven’t agreed to anything at this point.” He was not aware of any timeline for a decision.
He stressed that if an agreement is reached, it would not include sale of any additional water. OPS pays the city $1 million annually whether it uses water or not.
UPDATE
Water from the Lake Kemp/Lake diversion system is owned jointly by the city of Wichita Falls and Wichita County Water Improvement District No. 2, which provides agricultural irrigation.
Kyle Miller, manager of the water district, confirmed Monday afternoon his district has received the request from OPS, and the distirct’s board will consider it at a meeting Thursday.
The city processes some Lake Kemp water for residential use.
Google is confirmed to have plans to build two data centers in the area, one near Wichita Falls in Archer County and another near Vernon.
(This story was updated to add new information.)
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: UPDATED Another big data center is headed for the Wichita Falls area
Reporting by Lynn Walker, Wichita Falls Times Record News / Wichita Falls Times Record News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Lynn Walker, Wichita Falls Times Record News | USA TODAY Network
