22 Oct Harlingen Commission Rejects Cameron County’s Fluidstack-Linked Drainage Agreement

Harlingen city commissioners voted Wednesday to reject an agreement with Cameron County that would have started work on drainage improvements tied to Fluidstack’s data center, with several saying they would rather deal with the company directly.

The interlocal agreement would have had the city and county develop engineering, environmental and funding details for a project to improve drainage from the Harlingen area to the Arroyo Colorado. County officials said it was non-binding and that any final plan would have to come back to both governments. The motion to deny passed on a voice vote, and Mayor Pro Tem Daniel Lopez abstained.

County Administrator Pete Sepulveda and Cameron County Commissioner David Garza, who presented the agreement, said the work could be done with no local tax dollars and would fit into the city’s own master drainage plan. The plan calls for on-site detention built to a 500-year storm standard, which would cut peak runoff from the Fluidstack site from about 789 cubic feet per second to 175, and for widening the Airport Lateral Ditch from 1,344 cubic feet per second to 4,250. Fluidstack has put the cost of the drainage work at about $7 million.

Commissioners said they didn’t have time to review the agreement, which was handed out around 7 p.m., during the meeting. Garza said it was left out of the agenda packet and took responsibility. Commissioner Rene Perez said parts of the agreement went beyond drainage, including provisions for the city to promptly process ETJ opt-out petitions for Fluidstack properties and support the company’s requests for wastewater service from Harlingen Waterworks. He said the county appeared to be acting as a proxy for Fluidstack. Garza said the county wasn’t there for or against the company and that he had pushed the county to bring the agreement forward to protect the airport area.

Several commissioners said a Fluidstack town hall has to come before any further discussion. Mayor Norma Sepulveda said the company told her it would hold one before the end of November, with or without the city. She asked City Manager Gabriel Gonzalez to call Fluidstack and report back to the commission, and to contact the FAA about the ditch’s connection to the airport.

The city’s separate stormwater discharge agreement with Fluidstack has been tabled since Sept. 2, when commissioners made a town hall a condition of taking it up again.