Fact vs. Fiction: Black Mountain's "Quiet, Low-Impact" Pitch to Parker County

October 2026

📘 Summary

Parker County residents have started receiving requests from Black Mountain, the Fort Worth oil-and-gas developer behind the roughly 2,000-acre Pearson Ranch data center site north of Weatherford. The requests point to a pre-written letter for "local lawmakers" that takes 30 seconds to send and promises a "quiet, low-impact facility" that will bring "real tax relief," good jobs and a closed-loop water system that uses "less annually than a typical car wash or laundromat."

We checked the pitch against state and local records. Here's the short version:

• Confirmed: Black Mountain already holds a state air permit for five natural-gas turbines (75 MW) at 501 Pearson Ranch Road, authorized to run all 8,760 hours of the year. The company's own filing estimates about 137 tons of air pollutants a year, including 41 tons of VOCs and 24 tons of NOx. The letter never mentions turbines, gas or emissions.
• Reported, not yet filed: The district's general manager said at its Aug. 27 board meeting that Black Mountain intends to request 138 million gallons of groundwater a year, as our Sept. 5 briefing reported. No formal application appears in the district's posted records yet. If the request comes in at that size, the "car wash" comparison is off by a wide margin.
• Unsubstantiated: Black Mountain has published no tax revenue estimate, no permanent jobs number, and no plan showing how it will connect to the grid. Parker County has adopted a policy against tax abatements for hyperscale data centers.
• Worth knowing before you click "send": The form requires your name, email, phone and home address, and the fine print opts you into "autodialed and automated calls and texts" from Black Mountain. Anyone in any state can send the letter.

⚖️ The Pitch vs. the Record

Where the record supports a claim, we say so. Where nothing public confirms or rules it out, we say that too.

What the pitch gets right, or could

• The turbines meet a strict NOx standard. The permit requires 0.14 pounds of NOx per megawatt-hour or less, with catalytic controls on every unit. Per unit of power, that is clean for gas. The problem is the total: running all year still adds up to 24 tons. (Confirmed)
• New taxable value is real. With no abatement on the table, the land and buildings would go on the tax rolls at full value. How much reaches schools or lowers anyone's bill is unknown. (Partly confirmed)
• Closed-loop cooling uses far less water than evaporative cooling. If Black Mountain builds it that way, consumption would be much lower than an open, evaporative design. But closed loops still need fill and makeup water, and the turbines need water too. (Plausible, unconfirmed)
• Construction jobs. A project this size would employ trades for a time. (Likely, no number given)

What the pitch leaves out

• A 24/7 gas power plant with about 137 tons a year of emissions, in a county that is already part of the federal Dallas–Fort Worth ozone nonattainment area. (Confirmed)
• A groundwater draw of up to 138 million gallons a year, about 378,000 gallons every day. (Reported, not yet filed)
• Who Black Mountain is: an oil-and-gas company running the same buy-land, file-for-turbines approach at sites across Texas. (Confirmed)
• Any hard numbers on taxes, jobs, total power demand or water. (Not disclosed)

💨 The Air Permit

Texas Commission on Environmental Quality records show Black Mountain's power plant cleared in 21 days. The application from Fort Worth Power Core LLC was received March 13, 2025, and approved April 3, 2025, as registration No. 179422, the "Parker Plant." TCEQ filings list Black Mountain CEO Rhett Bennett as the responsible official, with a blackmtn.com email address.

It went through TCEQ's standard permit for electric generating units, a streamlined track that, unlike a major-source permit, generally skips the public notice and comment process. (Our Data Center Near You guide explains how those tracks differ.) TCEQ's technical review describes five simple-cycle Siemens SGT-400 turbines, 15 MW each, that "will provide backup / bridge power for a new data center and will be limited to 8,760 hours per year." That is every hour of the year.

Here is what the company's consultant estimated the turbines would emit at full operation:

Those are estimates from the March 2025 application, not measurements, and they assume year-round operation. NOx and VOCs matter in particular because they are the two ingredients of ground-level ozone, and Parker County is one of nine counties in the federal Dallas–Fort Worth ozone nonattainment area. In December 2025, Fort Worth Power Core told TCEQ the permitted activity was "operational." That may mean only that the authorization is in use. Whether the turbines are built or running cannot be confirmed from public records.

The same LLC holds TCEQ registrations for 14 other power plant sites, from Bowie County to Williamson County, including three in Tarrant County. Gas turbines as "bridge power" for data centers are becoming a statewide pattern; see The Biggest Polluter for the largest example yet.

💧 The Water Question

According to the Upper Trinity Groundwater Conservation District's general manager, Doug Shaw, Black Mountain has told the district it intends to request 138 million gallons of groundwater a year. Shaw said so at the district's Aug. 27 board meeting, which we covered in our Sept. 5 briefing. We checked again for this post: no formal application from Black Mountain or Fort Worth Power Core appears in any hearing notice, agenda or minutes the district has posted through its Oct. 15, 2026 meeting. The district's September and October agendas do include a general manager's report on "high-volume groundwater production permit applications," without naming applicants.

A request that size would require a hydrogeologic study under rules the district adopted this year, modeling impacts on neighboring wells at 1, 10, 30 and 50 years, and nearby landowners could request a contested-case hearing. Our Data Center Near You guide walks through how that process works.

What 138 million gallons a year looks like

We couldn't find a reliable published benchmark for school water use, so we left schools out rather than guess. If the request is filed at 138 million gallons, a "typical car wash or laundromat" isn't a fair comparison.

💰 Taxes, Jobs, Bills and Noise

Taxes. On June 9, 2026, the Parker County Commissioners Court adopted a resolution setting county policy against property-tax abatements for hyperscale data centers. It also called for independent reviews of grid and water impacts and opposed open-loop evaporative cooling in water-short areas. Any "real tax relief" would have to come from new taxable value alone, and Black Mountain hasn't published an estimate. For schools, Texas's funding formulas offset much of a district's new local property value with reduced state aid. A data center doesn't turn into classroom dollars one-for-one. Our guide's tax section covers what to ask. (Cannot be confirmed or denied.)

Jobs. Construction would bring trade work for a time. Black Mountain hasn't said how many permanent jobs the site would hold, and we found no public announcement from Weatherford College about a partnership. (Cannot be confirmed or denied.)

Electric bills. The turbines exist to power the data center itself. Nothing public shows how or when the site would connect to ERCOT, or who would pay for any transmission upgrades. (Cannot be confirmed or denied.)

Noise. Commissioners discussed noise and quality-of-life impacts on neighbors and livestock when the land purchase came up on May 26. Gas turbines permitted to run around the clock are hard to call "quiet."

🏢 Who Is Behind It

Black Mountain is a Fort Worth energy company with oil-and-gas roots, now assembling "powered land" for hyperscale data centers. It is led by CEO Rhett Bennett and backed by credit financing from Elda River Capital Management, announced in December 2025. In Fort Worth, a rezoning vote on 80 more acres for its $10 billion southeast campus has been pushed to December. Reporting this year has tied the company to sites in Fort Worth, Parker County, Bowie County and San Antonio.

In Parker County, Black Mountain Power LLC has assembled about 2,000 acres around 501 Pearson Ranch Road, near Lake Weatherford. The air permit is held by Fort Worth Power Core LLC, which shares Black Mountain's Fort Worth address and CEO.

🧭 What Parker County Residents Can Do

• Ask the groundwater district. The Upper Trinity GCD board meets monthly in Springtown and by Zoom; its next hearing is Thursday, Oct. 15, at 5 p.m. Ask whether a Black Mountain application has been filed. Contested-case requests and comments go to General Manager Doug Shaw at doug@uppertrinitygcd.com or P.O. Box 1749, Springtown, TX 76082.
• Ask TCEQ. TCEQ's Region 4 office (817-588-5800) covers Parker County. Ask whether the Parker Plant turbines (registration 179422) are built or operating, and report emissions or noise problems there.
• Read the fine print before you sign. Black Mountain's letter shares your contact details with the company and signs you up for automated texts and calls.
• Follow the county. Ask commissioners what state agencies have said in response to the June 9 resolution.

Our Data Center Near You guide has a full checklist, contacts and the records to request.

🧾 Conclusion

Black Mountain's letter isn't wrong about everything. A closed-loop design would save water, the turbines do meet a tight NOx standard, and a project this size would add taxable value. But the letter asks residents to vouch for a "quiet, low-impact facility" while leaving out the only facts state records confirm: a 75-megawatt gas plant permitted to run every hour of the year, and plans for up to 138 million gallons of groundwater annually. The tax relief, the jobs and the stable electric bills are promises without numbers. Residents deserve those numbers before they're asked to sign anything.

For more analysis on Texas energy and AI, visit PowerGrabTX.com.