BOLING, Texas – Amazon is moving forward with a massive data center project in Wharton County. Company leaders met with Boling residents Thursday night to answer questions and address concerns about what the development means for the community.
Construction is already underway on nearly 3,000 acres off FM 442 in Boling. Sources tell KPRC 2 News the project is a $10 billion dollar investment and includes 13 buildings that will support Amazon Web Services cloud computing operations that will be used by customers ranging from hospitals to first responders.
The project is expected to bring 300 full-time jobs to the area, with wages expected to exceed the current county average.
“150 of those jobs will be fulfilled by the end of 2027,” said Keith Klein, Amazon’s Director of Supply Solutions for the Americas.
“They’ll be higher than the current average wage for this particular county. They’re going to be really on-site operations jobs, from tech jobs to engineering jobs on the actual data center campus itself,” Klein added.
While some residents expressed concerns about construction noise, dust and flooding, others see the project as a long-term economic win for the region.
Boling resident, Pete Kucera, pointed to the financial benefits.
“The tax money will definitely help both the school district and Wharton County, period,” Kucera said.
Local realtor, Amy Wokoun, said the development could lift the entire community.
“I think it’s really good. I think the value of things are going to go up and it’s going to change the way people look at things like infrastructure and like the fire department and different things like that in the schools,” Wokoun said.
One of the most pressing questions from residents centered on water usage.
“Hey, what’s going to happen with our water?” one resident called out to a representative.
Amazon officials said the facility will not use water to cool its servers, relying instead on a closed-loop air-cooled system. Klein said water usage will be minimal.
“We’re going to use about 16,000 gallons of water per day for the project. None of it will be used for cooling of our actual data centers, it’s all domestic use. That’s equivalent to about 54 residential homes, or a single office building of a similar size,” Klein said.
Company leaders also addressed concerns about electricity. CenterPoint Energy is the power provider for the data center, but officials say the facility will have its own power supply through ERCOT on the transmission side, and will not impact customers’ electricity bills or usage.
The project is being built in phases over the next several years.
