The Greenbelt Municipal and Industrial Water Authority is considering a proposal from Lancium that could bring hundreds of thousands of gallons of additional water per day to Childress and surrounding communities as the area remains under Stage 4 drought restrictions.
Lancium presented the proposal during a Greenbelt board meeting Tuesday, outlining a project that would use wells on the company’s data center campus near Childress to supplement the region’s water supply.
The project is designed as a two-year bridge while Greenbelt and the communities it serves pursue longer-term solutions to the region’s water challenges.
Under the proposal, Lancium would pay to construct and operate a water treatment facility and approximately 16.5 miles of pipeline connecting wells on its property to Greenbelt’s system in Childress. Lancium officials said Greenbelt, Childress and surrounding communities would not bear the cost of the project during the proposed two-year term.
Lancium Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Scott McFarland said the company hopes the project can provide hundreds of thousands of gallons of treated water each day.
“None of this water is for Lancium’s use or any of our data center use,” McFarland said. “This water is all going to be provided from wells that we have drilled on our campus, and we will build and operate a pipeline into a treatment facility up into the Greenbelt tank storage tank up in Childress.”
Lancium officials said three wells would be dedicated to the Greenbelt project. Those wells would be separate from the water supply needed for construction and operations at the data center campus.
The company also addressed questions about what additional pumping could mean for the Blaine Aquifer. Lancium said modeling conducted by Jacobs Engineering found the proposed project could operate without lowering the aquifer below its established threshold.
Greenbelt General Manager Bobbie Kidd said adding another source could ease pressure on both Greenbelt Lake and the authority’s existing wells.
“All the board members were in favor of it today. Of course, we’re a long ways from having water running, and there’s a lot of hoops to jump through still with water quality,” Kidd said. “Got a lot of permitting to do right away. There’s a lot of things that get done before this to be water running into the system.”
The discussion comes as the area's water situation is having implications beyond homes, farms and businesses.
Childress Regional Medical Center CEO Holly Holcomb told the board that interruptions or reductions in water service could have immediate consequences for patient care.
“If there was a water suspension or a water decrease or even a water quality issue, number one, we would have to stop dialysis treatments,” Holcomb said.
Holcomb said 19 patients were receiving dialysis Tuesday morning. Water problems could also affect chemotherapy treatments, surgeries and deliveries, she said.
While speakers acknowledged the potential short-term benefits of Lancium’s proposal, questions remain about what happens after the proposed two-year agreement ends.
Farmer Roger Browning said the additional water could provide some relief but expressed concern about groundwater use and whether the project could create a misleading sense that the region’s larger water problem has been solved.
“For short term it’s going to be great. It’s going to help build up a water supply, but it’s going to be a false narrative. We’re already in stage four drought restrictions,” Browning said.
The proposal is still in its early stages. Lancium and Greenbelt are expected to continue working through the terms of a possible agreement, while the project would also require engineering work and permitting through the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
That process means additional water will not begin flowing immediately, despite the urgency created by the drought.
