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Residents warn Casper council about potential water demands from nearby carbon‑capture/data center plans
Summary
Public commenters told Casper council the Spiritus/Prometheus carbon-capture plan tied to a nearby data center could use hundreds of thousands to millions of gallons per day at full buildout and urged the city to limit use of municipal water for projects that primarily benefit another county.
During public comment on June 2, residents raised concerns that a Spiritus carbon‑capture plan connected to a Prometheus hyperscale data center could place large new demands on Casper’s water supply.
Amity Holland, citing county work‑session materials and news reports, told the council that Spiritus described utility needs of 200–500 gallons per minute for an initial carbon‑capture block (288,000–720,000 gallons/day) and projected expansion to 20 blocks. "200 to 500 gallons a minute may not sound like a lot, but it's 288,000 to 720,000 gallons of water per day," Holland said. She warned that at full buildout the project could demand as much water as the entire city’s summer daily use, based on a cited Oil City News figure of about 25 million gallons per day.
Holland asked the council to restrict use of Casper water for a project she said is primarily a Converse County activity or to set hard usage limits and to require that jurisdictions benefiting from tax revenues bear infrastructure burdens. The Vice Mayor and other councilors thanked her for citations and said staff would review the referenced materials and report back.
Council members emphasized they would follow up with staff to verify the numbers, check DEQ filings and county materials cited by the speaker, and coordinate with neighboring jurisdictions where projects cross county lines.
What’s next: staff said they would review the packet Holland provided, consult DEQ and county records, and bring findings to council for further consideration of any request to provide municipal water to an out‑of‑county project.
