The impact of billion-dollar data centers in water-stressed Medina County

MEDINA COUNTY, Texas – Late at night, lights seep in through the windows of Medina County Commissioner Larry Sittre’s home.

These aren’t floodlights from a home next door. Instead, a growing data center has joined Sittre’s neighborhood.

For Sittre, an uneven night’s rest is a small price to pay for what he expects to be big changes in Medina County.

The area is slated to become a hot spot for data centers, with a handful of nearly billion-dollar projects in development, county officials told KSAT.

“Eight (centers) is the number that I’m aware,” Medina County Judge Keith Lutz said.

“I feel it’s close to that, the ones that we know of,” Sittre said. “There has been some other properties that have been bought. There’s construction going on. They don’t come tell us that’s what they are. The neighbors know and the neighbors call us.”

The data centers tend to promise a boost for local economies. They have also garnered controversy due to their extensive use of energy and natural resources in water-stressed areas.

https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2025/10/03/the-impact-of-billion-dollar-data-centers-in-water-stressed-medina-county/