El Paso City Council updates water planning for Meta’s Northeast data center

El Paso City Council used a July 6, 2026 work session to address ongoing public concerns about how much water Meta’s planned data-center project in Northeast El Paso could require—what officials framed as part of long-term utility planning.

The City’s Legistar agenda materials for the session said the presentation was requested to address “concerns regarding the infrastructure needed to serve the Meta data center site” and the facility’s projected water consumption. The same packet also lists “No action” for Council, making clear the work session was informational rather than a vote.

What the Legistar packet said the work session was for

In the agenda language posted through Legistar, the City said the presentation would include long-range planning information developed in the 2000s for infrastructure needed to serve Northeast El Paso (including the area that now includes the Meta facility). The packet also said the presentation would provide accurate figures on the facility’s projected water use and help dispel erroneous figures raised in public commentary.

What El Paso Water told officials, according to KVIA

KVIA reported that El Paso Water officials said the facility’s water usage is projected to be lower than many residents believe and that existing customers will not be negatively impacted.

KVIA also reported that El Paso Water president and CEO John Balliew pointed to earlier master-planning assumptions from 2006, noting that large data centers were not anticipated then. In that same reporting, KVIA said Balliew described a “maximum allowable water use” for the Meta site of 2.5 million gallons per day, and that this maximum would only be reached if El Paso temperatures hit 117 degrees—a temperature the city has never recorded.

KVIA further reported that Balliew estimated the project’s expected daily water use to be closer to 480,000 gallons per day, framing that figure as comparable to other large commercial water users.

Where the Meta data center is planned—and the tiered water figures

City of El Paso background materials on data centers say the proposed Northeast El Paso META site is on approximately 1,000 acres on the north side of Stan Roberts Sr. Avenue, west of U.S. Highway 54. The City’s resource hub also describes the project’s water use as structured in tiers or phases.

For water-use figures residents can verify in those City materials, the resource hub describes:

• Tier I: maximum of 300,000 gallons per day; average of 100,000 gallons per day.
• Tier II: maximum of 1 million gallons per day; average of 750,000 gallons per day.
• Tier III: total maximum allocation of 2.5 million gallons per day; average of 1.5 million gallons per day.

The City’s hub adds that the maximum permitted use at full buildout (2.5 million gallons per day) would be roughly equal to the water use of 12,375 homes, using an average household consumption figure shown on the page.

KVIA also reported that Meta plans to use a water-efficient, closed-loop, liquid-cooled system and that its background materials say it would use zero water for a majority of the year.

Practical takeaway for residents

If you’re concerned about water-supply strain from data-center growth in Northeast El Paso, this July 6 work session is one of the clearest points where the City and El Paso Water addressed the projected-demand question directly—grounded in the City’s long-range planning context and the tiered figures the City publishes.

Because the Legistar packet lists “No action,” the practical thing to watch next is whether future infrastructure and water-planning updates tied to the project keep matching the same projected-demand framework that officials presented.

Sources

• KVIA (July 7, 2026) on what El Paso Water said
• El Paso Legistar packet language (July 6 work session)
• City of El Paso data centers hub (tiered water-use figures)