The county’s 3-1 vote on Oct. 6, 2026, did not settle whether Harlingen will approve a proposed drainage agreement tied to a $7 million canal-widening project. Cameron County commissioners approved the proposal subject to legal review, while Commissioner Gus Ruiz said he was unclear about the terms before the court. The four-mile canal runs from Valley International Airport to the Arroyo Colorado. The proposed work would more than double its width and increase its stormwater capacity more than threefold; the funding offer came from Fluidstack, which is building a data center on Harlingen’s northeastern outskirts.
Under the proposal, Fluidstack would pay $7 million to widen the 90-foot canal outside city limits in exchange for permission to discharge its data center’s stormwater runoff into it, according to MyRGV.com. The company separately offered Harlingen $20 million for other infrastructure projects. The canal would grow from 90 feet to 180 feet wide, and its runoff capacity would rise from 1,344 cubic feet per second to 4,250 cubic feet per second.
Commissioner David Garza, who recommended approval, said the arrangement would require no county capital outlay because the third-party project site would pay for the drainage work. He described it as an opportunity to help Harlingen and the airport address a longstanding flooding problem, and said the upgrade would effectively triple outflow capacity along the canal corridor.
One Commissioner Says He Voted Blind
Commissioner Gus Ruiz cast the lone dissenting vote, saying, “I don't know what I'm voting on.” He also questioned whether most commissioners had read the proposed agreement.
Ruiz argued the document handed to the court was missing basic components. He said the agreement lacked attachments, exhibits, cost estimates, funding sources, assigned responsibilities and financial obligations, and referenced a community benefits agreement that commissioners had never seen. He said he would vote against the item specifically because he did not know what he was voting on.
A Four-Mile Canal Carrying New Weight
The canal at the center of the dispute runs along a four-mile stretch between the airport and the Arroyo Colorado, a waterway that has drawn its own scrutiny. A 2020 environmental assessment from the International Boundary and Water Commission noted that reduced capacity in the Arroyo Colorado may affect adjacent developed areas when it is carrying flood water. Concerns about the canal's capacity intensified after flooding in March 2025, which the Valley Morning Star previously reported underscored how strained the drainage system already was, a period that also saw the airport's main runway closed while officials reviewed flood damage, according to a separate MyRGV.com report.
Against that backdrop, the canal project's backers argue the upgrade does more than just serve one company's data center. The improvements are intended to reduce flood risk, control discharge and protect the Arroyo Colorado drainage corridor more broadly, according to the county's framing of the plan reported by MyRGV.com.
Stormwater Rules and Earlier Flood Work
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality guidance says industrial facilities discharging stormwater associated with industrial activity into state surface waters may need authorization. The guidance does not determine which requirements apply to Fluidstack’s proposed discharge, or how any wastewater rules would apply to the project, according to the TCEQ. Flood-control work in the watershed predates the canal proposal. After the March 27, 2025, regional rains, the International Boundary and Water Commission awarded a $1.6 million contract to design dredging of a separate 6.3-mile section of the Arroyo Colorado in Harlingen, between U.S. Business Highway 77 and Cemetery Road, BorderReport reported. That dredging project is separate from the county’s proposed canal widening.
A Data Center With a Billion-Dollar Price Tag
The canal fight is inseparable from the project generating the runoff in the first place. Fluidstack launched construction in September on what it describes as the first data center in Cameron County, calling it the $4 billion first phase of a planned 1,100-acre campus. County Judge Eddie Trevino Jr. has said the facility will use a closed-loop coolant system meant to improve energy efficiency and reduce water use, and that Fluidstack is working to address community concerns about preserving water and electricity resources, including developing arrangements with AEP and on-site energy sources.
That is not the only large data center project circling the airport. Eneus Energy is separately proposing a 1,875-acre data center campus just outside Harlingen's city limits near Valley International Airport, per the same MyRGV.com report, signaling the region's drainage and utility systems could face pressure from more than one direction in the years ahead.
Harlingen's Own Vote Still Pending
The county vote leaves the city’s decision unresolved. Harlingen commissioners were slated to consider Cameron County’s request to enter the drainage agreement. Mayor Norma Sepulveda has said Fluidstack took its offer to the county and that the city commission must consider the canal-widening request. An agenda attachment from Gabriel Gonzalez called for more detail on the agreement’s drainage-lateral provision, which appeared to allow future projects to use it as well.
Harlingen had not approved Fluidstack’s original drainage offer at its September 2 meeting; commissioners instead asked the company to hold a town hall to address residents’ concerns, and several said they might still oppose the project afterward. KRGV reported that the city commission tabled an agreement that would have allowed Fluidstack to route stormwater into a city-owned canal. Fluidstack then received a worksite permit from Cameron County and said it would pursue alternative plans for wastewater discharge. The alternative arrangement is now before the county and is due to return to the city. A Cameron County notice confirms a worksite permit was issued to Fluidstack for construction of a closed-loop-technology data center facility in unincorporated parts of the county near the airport.
The destination of Fluidstack’s original $20 million infrastructure offer is also uncertain. KRGV reported that Mayor Sepulveda said the money would instead go to Cameron County under the alternative arrangement. That account has not been independently confirmed, leaving the potential benefits to Harlingen unclear as its commissioners consider the proposal.
Water Deals Already in Motion
Water, not just stormwater, is also part of the broader picture around the data center boom. The Harlingen WaterWorks board entered an agreement last September that could supply as much as 4.6 million gallons of sewer water a day to a proposed data center, in exchange for up to $1.2 million annually, with the company paying 75 cents per 1,000 gallons of effluent water, according to the Valley Morning Star's earlier reporting carried by MyRGV.com. If an effluent water supply isn't available, WaterWorks would be required to sell potable water instead.
Separately, Cameron County Drainage District No. 6 signed an $11.3 million loan agreement with NADBank this past July for stormwater improvements intended to serve nearly 4,000 low- to moderate-income households, according to the Rio Grande Guardian. That financing is slated to advance Phases 1 through 4 of the IBWC North Levee Improvement Projects, covering pump-station, drainage-outfall, channel-capacity and land-acquisition work — a reminder that the region's drainage needs extend well beyond any single company's campus.
Harlingen’s decision will determine whether the proposed $7 million canal project proceeds under the current arrangement. The agreement remains subject to legal review, and its final terms and the destination of Fluidstack’s separate $20 million infrastructure offer remain unresolved.
