EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The New Mexico Environmental Law Center and several other parties have filed a lawsuit against the Doña Ana County Board of County Commissioners for what they are calling the board’s “unlawful” actions related to the controversial Project Jupiter data center project that would be built outside of Santa Teresa.
The New Mexico Environmental Law Center is challenging the board’s “unlawful approval of three ordinances related to Project Jupiter.”
The first ordinance authorizes the County to issue $165 billion of industrial revenue bonds to support Project Jupiter.
The second and third ordinances authorize the issuing of New Mexico Local Economic Development Act funding to support the project.
The suit was filed on Oct. 17 in the Third Judicial District Court and also included Sunland Park resident José Saldaña Jr.; Santa Teresa resident Vivian Fuller and the Empowerment Congress of Doña Ana County.
On Sept. 19, Doña Ana County Board voted to adopt the industrial revenue bonds and the first LEDA ordinance. On Oct. 14, the County Board voted to adopt the second LEDA ordinance, the group said.
Both votes were 4-1.
The lawsuit is seeking the court’s review of the County Board’s decisions to adopt the three ordinances, as well as a court order invalidating the board’s adoption of the ordinances due to the board’s failures to follow both local and state law, the group said in its news release.
The group said the County Board relied on a “single, incomplete and inadequate application for the IRBs (industrial revenue bonds) to support its decision adopting all three ordinances,” the group said. The group said the application had blank and missing pages.
The incomplete application failed to include necessary and critical information the board needed in order to make a fully informed decision, as required by law, before committing local resources and funds to the project, the group said.
“Despite the flaws in the single IRB application submitted for Project Jupiter, the County Board adopted all three ordinances to push this proposed hyperscale data center forward,” the group said.
“While Sunland Park, Santa Teresa, and Doña Ana County community members remained largely unaware of the proposed project up until days before the board’s decision to adopt the ordinances, Doña Ana County staff and officials had been engaging in discussions and closed-door meetings with the project developers months in advance, even entering into a non-disclosure agreement with the Project Jupiter companies earlier this year,” the group added.
Data centers, like the proposed Project Jupiter, “use massive amounts of water in order to operate and across the nation create an immense strain on local electricity grids and public water supplies; increase electricity and water bills for both local residents and businesses; and significantly increase noise, light, air, water, and soil pollution in neighboring communities,” the group said.
Project Jupiter, alongside a proposed microgrid, natural gas power plants, battery storage center, and desalination plant, is seeking to make its home in Santa Teresa, where community members have already lacked access to clean, safe, and affordable drinking water for decades, the group said.
“The County Board’s decision to commit local funds, resources, and communities’ futures to out-of-state developers directly contradicts the public’s right to have government decision makers comply with their own laws, which were created to ensure these local government bodies make fully informed decisions in the best interests of their constituents,” the group added.
The group is adding that the court pause implementation of the County ordinances related to this project during the lawsuit to ensure that the project only moves forward after the County follows all laws when making decisions that “will undoubtedly harm their constituents who they took an oath to serve.”
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