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Data Center Watch Report · ZIP 77640

Port Arthur

Jefferson

Under constructionZIP 53.5% Blackpop 17,480

Under construction (Port navigation-district data center) + Proposed/Announced (large AI data center tied to new Entergy gas plant) — not ERCOT; served by Enter

Researched: 2026-08-02 · Lead source: Brockovich AI Data Center community map (1 resident report, 2026-05-21) · ZIP demographics: 53.5% Black, pop 17,480 (Census ACS 2023) · County: Jefferson (~34% Black) Status: Under construction (Port navigation-district data center) + Proposed/Announced (large AI data center tied to new Entergy gas plant) — not ERCOT; served by Entergy Texas on the MISO grid

This report is research, not legal, financial, real-estate, or investment advice.

0. Snapshot

Port Arthur is a Gulf Coast refinery city whose Black-majority West Side already carries one of the heaviest pollution burdens in Texas — Motiva (the largest refinery in North America), Valero, and TotalEnergies refineries plus LNG and petrochemical plants ring the historically Black neighborhood. Into that cumulative-impact setting, two data-center threads are moving: (1) a Port of Port Arthur Navigation District data-center project at 501 Houston Ave (77640), TDLR-registered and under construction; and (2) a larger AI data center (reported ~300 MW, ~$1.3B) whose phasing is explicitly tied to new Entergy Texas gas generation — the Legend Power Station, a 754 MW combined-cycle plant approved for Port Arthur by the PUCT in 2025. Crucially, Port Arthur is not on ERCOT — Entergy Texas operates in MISO — so the ERCOT-specific parts of Texas's SB6 large-load rules and Gov. Abbott's ERCOT directives do not directly govern this load. That gap is central to "who pays."

1. The Facility & Where It Sits

  • Port of Port Arthur Navigation District — data center project. Property owner/developer of record: the Port of Port Arthur Navigation District; site 501 Houston Ave., Port Arthur, TX 77640. Registered with the Texas Department of Licensing & Regulation (TDLR/TABS); listed as under construction with estimated completion around September 2027. Related bid packages describe a detention pond and solar, and a separate "Data Center Generator Project." Reported project needs ~42 acres; ~100 acres are available at the Port Arthur Business Park on West Port Arthur Road. (Port of Port Arthur; TDLR/zabalist.)
  • Large "Port Arthur AI data center." Reported at roughly 300 MW and about $1.3 billion, with phases that can proceed after new Entergy generation is built — described as drawing about one-quarter of the Legend plant's output. Local business/workforce discussions were held in January 2026. The specific data-center developer/operator has not been publicly confirmed; a third-party tracker speculatively labels it a "Google Beaumont Campus," but that attribution is unverified as of 2026-08-02. Treat the operator as undisclosed. (Port Arthur News, Jan 16 2026, via search summary; MoreThanJustParks tracker — unverified.)

Where it sits: Port Arthur's industrial waterfront and the West Port Arthur Road business-park area sit adjacent to the city's historically Black West Side — the same neighborhoods already enclosed by refineries. ZIP 77640 covers central/west Port Arthur including that West Side. Exact parcel-to-home distances for the AI campus were not verified; the port project at 501 Houston Ave is in the urban core.

2. Public Hearings & Notices

  • The Port of Port Arthur Navigation District governs its own procurement (bid notices posted at portpa.com) and is the permitting counterparty for the port data center. TDLR registration numbers exist (TABS filings) but specific case numbers/dates were not all captured here.
  • The Entergy Legend Power Station was approved through a PUCT certificate proceeding (CCN) in 2025; Entergy broke ground in April 2026. Look up the docket at the PUCT interchange (puc.texas.gov) for hearing records and any intervenor testimony.
  • No Port-Arthur-city-council data-center zoning case was confirmed as of 2026-08-02 (the port and the business park may fall under port/navigation-district or ETJ jurisdiction rather than a standard city rezoning). Confirm jurisdiction with the City Secretary and the Port.

3. Power

  • Serving utility: Entergy Texas, which operates in MISO, not ERCOT. This matters: SB6 (2025) and Gov. Abbott's 2026 directives are written around ERCOT large loads and curtailment, so their interconnection-cost and curtailment mandates do not cleanly apply to an Entergy/MISO load in Port Arthur. Who ultimately pays for the generation and transmission is therefore governed by Entergy's PUCT rate cases, not ERCOT's SB6 mechanics.
  • New generation: Legend Power Station — 754 MW combined-cycle, ~$1.6B, sited in Port Arthur, carbon-capture-enabled and hydrogen-capable, PUCT-approved 2025, groundbreaking April 2026, targeted in service ~2028. A sister plant, Lone Star (~453 MW), is in Liberty County. Entergy pitched the pair as supporting "rapid growth" in Southeast Texas — growth that explicitly includes the AI data center. (Entergy; Power Magazine; Power-Technology; Port Arthur News.)
  • Who pays — the live question: If a large private data center is the reason new gas plants and transmission are built, residents should press whether the cost of that generation lands in Entergy's general residential rates or is ring-fenced to the data-center customer. Unlike an ERCOT/SB6 load, there is no automatic statutory "large load pays its own way" backstop here.

4. Water & Drought

  • Port Arthur sits on the Gulf and draws from the Sabine–Neches system; it is not a groundwater-scarce inland site the way rural West/East Texas sites are. Even so, combined-cycle gas generation and data-center cooling are both water-intensive, and Southeast Texas has faced drought stretches — check current status for Jefferson County at drought.gov/states/texas/county/jefferson.
  • Facility-specific water sourcing, withdrawal permits, and discharge (into an already heavily-permitted industrial watershed) were not verified as of 2026-08-02. Given the West Side's existing exposure, cumulative water and wastewater/thermal-discharge questions are worth raising with TCEQ.

5. Population & Who Lives Here

  • ZIP 77640: ~53.5% Black, population ~17,480 (ACS 2023). This is the core of historically Black Port Arthur, including the West Side.
  • Cumulative pollution burden (documented): The Motiva refinery (a Saudi Aramco subsidiary and the largest U.S. refinery) plus Valero and TotalEnergies and numerous petrochemical/LNG facilities surround the West Side. Reporting and EPA data cited by advocates: African Americans in Jefferson County have been reported with a markedly higher cancer-mortality rate than the Texas average, and childhood asthma rates well above the national average; Valero's Port Arthur refinery accumulated Clean Air Act violations totaling well over a million pounds of unauthorized emissions. Port Arthur is repeatedly described as an environmental-justice "sacrifice zone." (Inside Climate News; NRDC; Environmental Integrity Project; Lone Star Legal Aid / PA-CAN.)
  • The relevant justice question: adding a 754 MW gas plant and a ~300 MW data center to a neighborhood already carrying refinery/LNG cumulative impact — with a non-ERCOT cost structure — concentrates yet more industrial load on a Black-majority ZIP.

6. Money — Abatements, Incentives, Jobs

  • State sales-tax exemption: Qualified Texas data centers are exempt from the 6.25% state sales tax on equipment, electricity, cooling, and generators (Tax Code §151.359/§151.3595) — the same statewide subsidy (~$1B/yr) that applies elsewhere.
  • Local incentives / abatements specific to the Port Arthur data center(s) were not verified as of 2026-08-02 — ask the City, Jefferson County, and the Port whether Chapter 380/381 agreements, tax abatements, or PILOT/fee-in-lieu deals exist.
  • Jobs: Entergy framed the Legend/Lone Star gas plants as generating major construction activity and thousands of construction jobs regionally; permanent data-center jobs are typically far fewer. Separate the construction promises from permanent headcount when evaluating any deal.

7. Community Reaction & News Coverage

  • Local outlets: Port Arthur News (panews.com) and the Beaumont Enterprise are the primary local papers; KFDM/12News for TV.
  • Environmental-justice coverage and advocates: Inside Climate News, NRDC, Environmental Integrity Project, Environment Texas / Sierra Club, Lone Star Legal Aid, and the local Port Arthur Community Action Network (PA-CAN) — a long-standing West Side environmental-justice group that has previously forced state enforcement against Valero.
  • No data-center-specific lawsuit or petition was located as of 2026-08-02; the organized capacity (PA-CAN and allies) exists and is the natural first call for residents who want to weigh in.

8. Find Out For Yourself

City of Port Arthur, TX (Jefferson County) — verify against portarthurtx.gov before quoting:

  • City Hall: 444 4th Street, Port Arthur, TX 77640 (mailing: P.O. Box 1089, Port Arthur, TX 77641-1089) · (409) 983-8115.
  • City Secretary: 444 4th Street, Room 430 · (409) 983-8115 · fax (409) 983-8128 — request any council/port agendas, zoning cases, and incentive agreements for the data-center projects.
  • Mayor: Charlotte M. Moses · (409) 983-8105 · charlotte.moses@portarthurtx.gov.
  • City Council: Willie "Bae" Lewis, Jr. (D1), Tiffany L. Hamilton Everfield (D2), Doneane Beckcom (D3), Harold L. Doucet, Sr. (D4, Mayor Pro Tem), Thomas Kinlaw, III (At-Large Pos. 5). Confirm your district's member on the city site.
  • Port of Port Arthur Navigation District: portpa.com (bid notices, project pages for the data-center and generator projects).
  • Power / rates: Entergy Texas public affairs; PUCT interchange at puc.texas.gov — look up the Legend Power Station CCN docket and file comments on cost allocation.
  • Air/water/enforcement: TCEQ (tceq.texas.gov) for air permits and the drought page; EPA Region 6; and PA-CAN for community organizing.

Questions worth asking when you call:

  1. Who actually owns/operates the ~300 MW AI data center, and where exactly are its parcels relative to the West Side?
  2. Since Port Arthur is on Entergy/MISO (not ERCOT/SB6), who pays for the new Legend gas plant and its transmission — the data-center customer, or all Entergy residential ratepayers?
  3. What are the air-permit terms for on-site generators and the Legend plant, and how do they add to existing refinery emissions (cumulative-impact review)?
  4. How much water will the data center and gas plant withdraw, from where, and what is discharged back into the Neches?
  5. What local tax abatements or Chapter 380/381 deals, if any, were signed — and for how many years?
  6. How many permanent jobs (not construction) are guaranteed, and are they enforceable?

9. If You're Thinking About Moving Here

Port Arthur is an affordable Gulf city with deep community roots, but ZIP 77640 already sits inside one of the most heavily documented industrial-pollution "sacrifice zones" in the country. A prospective resident should weigh, honestly and as of 2026-08-02: (1) existing refinery/LNG air and odor burden, now potentially compounded by a 754 MW gas plant and a large data center; (2) that the non-ERCOT cost structure offers no automatic SB6 guarantee that the data center pays for its own power infrastructure, so rate impacts are an open question; (3) water withdrawal/discharge into an already stressed industrial watershed; and (4) hurricane/flood exposure typical of the upper Texas coast. These are serious, real considerations — verify permits and rate filings for yourself. This is research, not real-estate or investment advice.

10. Sources

Lead source: resident reports on the Brockovich AI Data Center community map, then independently verified against public records. Research, not legal, financial, real-estate, or investment advice. Some resident-reported pins remain uncorroborated and are labeled as such above.