Hidalgo County to hear public input on data centers, mining, geothermal plans

Hidalgo County residents will have a chance Thursday night to press officials on what data center, mining and geothermal proposals could mean for water, roads, jobs and land use across the county. The public meeting is set for 5:30 p.m. on July 2 at the Animas Auditorium, and the Board of County Commissioners has scheduled it as a special meeting in Animas.

The county is opening the discussion before any final decisions are made, which makes the session a key checkpoint for people in Lordsburg, Animas, Rodeo and the wider Bootheel. County offices are based at 305 Pyramid St. in Lordsburg, but the projects under discussion could reach well beyond the county seat if they move forward. Residents will be looking for specifics on how much power the projects would need, whether new roads or utility upgrades would be required, and how county land use rules would apply.

Geothermal development already has a foothold in Hidalgo County. Lightning Dock Geothermal HI-01, LLC operates near Animas in the Animas Valley, and it is New Mexico’s only utility-scale geothermal power plant. Commercial operation began there on December 1, 2018, giving county residents a working example of what a geothermal project looks like on the ground in this part of the state.

The county meeting comes as geothermal power is also tied to one of New Mexico’s biggest data center-related energy proposals. On June 12, 2025, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced that XGS Energy and Meta had agreed to develop 150 megawatts of advanced geothermal energy in New Mexico. The governor said the electricity would power Meta’s New Mexico data center operations and move through the PNM electric grid, using technology that does not require operating water.

That project has been described as a roughly $1 billion private investment that could create 3,000 construction jobs and 100 jobs operating the geothermal plant. Company leaders have also pointed to a permitting timeline of at least three years and said the work could be finished by 2030, with some officials suggesting 2028 as an earlier target. Those numbers are why Thursday’s meeting is likely to draw not only residents but also ranchers, contractors and local business owners who could feel the first effects if large industrial projects advance.

For residents, the most immediate questions are practical ones: how much water the county can spare, where the power will come from, which roads would carry construction traffic, and which parcels of land could be affected first. If the county wants to bring data centers, mining and geothermal development into the same conversation, the July 2 meeting will be the place where those tradeoffs begin to come into view.