Meta is building one of the largest data centers on earth in Richland Parish. People are asking hard questions about it. Good. Here are straight answers, with the sources so you can check them yourself.
The numbers say no. Data centers use water to stay cool. But they use far less than everyday things we never argue about. Do not take my word for it. The U.S. Department of Energy asked its own science lab to add it up.1
Being fully fair: the power plants that run the data centers use water too. Count all of that, and data centers still come in around 230 billion gallons. Golf still uses roughly twice as much. Almonds use four times as much.1
Sources: U.S. Dept. of Energy / Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (2024)¹ · GCSAA and USGA national golf water survey, peer-reviewed (2025)² · Pacific Institute almond water analysis³
Now the part the critics are counting on. Yes, this number will grow. The AI boom is real, and the same government lab projects data center cooling water could reach 38 to 73 billion gallons a year by 2028.1 So let us take their biggest number, 73 billion, and put it next to everything else:
A full year of data center cooling, at the government's highest 2028 estimate, equals about five hours of the water America withdraws.
That is not a water crisis. That is a rounding error.12
Remember, one almond takes about a gallon of water to grow, and a handful takes more water than you drink in two weeks. Nobody is trying to shut down the almond farms. Or the golf courses. And nobody should.3
And here is the part most people have not heard. Meta says the Richland Parish plant is the new kind. It cools with a sealed loop, like the cooling system in your truck. The same water goes around and around. Most of the year, the company says, it cools with air and uses almost no water at all.4
Meta has also promised, in writing, to put more water back into Louisiana than it takes out by 2030. In places where water is tight, its rule is to put back twice what it uses.4 And it has committed over $1 billion to fix local roads, water lines, and sewer systems in the parish.5
This is the most important question on this page, and it deserves the straightest answer.
A plant this big uses a lot of power. In some other states, big data centers came to town and folks saw their bills go up. Some groups here worry the same thing will happen to us, and that we could be stuck paying for power plants after Meta's contract ends.6 Those are fair worries. So let us look at what the deal actually says.
Louisiana did not just take Meta's word for it. The deal had to pass the Public Service Commission, the elected board whose whole job is protecting your power bill. They approved the first phase in August 2025. The expansion is in front of that same elected board right now.7 Here is what the deal requires:
Sources: Entergy Louisiana filings and announcements&sup5; ⁾ · Louisiana Public Service Commission approval, Aug. 20, 2025&sup7; · The $2.65 billion figure is Entergy's own projection, and it is on the record.
The honest open question: what happens after year 20?
The plants will last longer than the first contract. Keeping the promises kept is a job for watchdogs, not press releases. The governor has already ordered a new ratepayer protection framework for projects like this.9 I will be one of the people watching. That is what I do.
Richland Parish has about 20,000 people. This one project is already paying for teacher raises, new roads, and free trade school for local kids.5
invested in Richland Parish, one of the largest projects in America
construction jobs at the peak of the build
full-time jobs once it is running
in work already awarded to Louisiana businesses
teacher bonuses this year, up from $10k, paid by the new tax money
to Louisiana Delta Community College, its largest gift ever, for local trade scholarships
Sources: Meta and Louisiana Economic Development, July 2026&sup5; · Richland Parish School District¹⁰
Zoom out, and it is bigger than one parish. Every text you send, every game you stream, every bill you pay on your phone runs through a data center. America is in a race to lead the world in this technology. We can build it here, with our workers, in our towns. Or we can watch another country build it. North Louisiana chose to build.
Growing one square mile of farmland uses more water in a year than training one of these big AI systems.
The scary headlines got the clicks. The numbers tell a different story.11
I am for this project, and I will hold it to a high standard. The same one I bring to everything on the council floor.
Pay for the power you use. Put the water back. Hire our people. Fund our schools. If a project does all four, north Louisiana should welcome it. Hyperion is doing all four, on paper and on the ground. My job is making sure it stays that way.
I spent my career in Louisiana plants and operations. I know what a project like this means for the families who build it and the towns that host it. Let us get this one right, and let us be proud we landed it.