By Mary Alice Murphy
At the Sept. 8, 2026 Grant County Commission work session, a number of speakers at public input spoke in opposition of a data center in Grant County.
The data center is proposed by Site Layer 1 LLC for a site located in the 30,000-acre Hurt Ranch. The site is about 11 miles from Hachita in the boot heel of New Mexico.
It is proposed to be constructed on private property. A legal notice was issued that indicates the facility would generate its own electricity using 32 natural-gas-fired generations, which are estimated to provide generating capacity of about 300.8 megawatts.
Site Layer 1 LLC is a foreign Limited-Liability company, which filed in New Mexico Feb. 4, 2026 and is listed as active with the New Mexico Corporations Division.
According to this article in Demingnews.com: https://demingnews.com/index.php/2026/09/08/proposed-data-center-near-playas-new-mexico/, a New York based investment firm, Corner, with a Domestic Jurisdiction of Delaware, has connections to Site Layer 1 LLC and also has other operations in Asia and the Middle East.
Concerns presented at the Commission meeting included potential for contamination of the groundwater, as water is generally needed to cool such operations. The groundwater underneath the property comes from the Hachita Basin, which extends into Grant, Hidalgo and Luna counties. Such a data center allegedly could use as much a 6,535 acre-feet of water annually. Other issues raised were air pollution, noise and impacts on wildlife and humans.
It has been reported that Site Layer I LLC plans to submit an air-quality permit application to the NM Environment Department's Air Quality Bureau by Oct. 1, so no final air-quality permit or construction approval has been awarded.
At this point in the project, not enough information on size or number of buildings, proposed engines, number of jobs, potential emissions or environmental impacts or controls can be determined until the proposal is further filled out through its requests for permits and approvals.
