Plans for Fermi Plant in Amarillo Stir Public Protest

There's been a lot of talk and division over the Fermi plant that is going to be built in Amarillo. Many residents are upset with what it represents, and just how much water they are going to be using.

They're all valid concerns, and a lot of rumors that the plant will be utilizing roughly 5.5 million gallons of water per day. I saw someone post a statistic that Amarillo as a whole uses 50 million gallons of water per day, so this is a bit more than a 10% increase in water usage.

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Is It A Done Deal

Last night, October 15, there was a city council meeting that discussed this exact thing. According to council member Les Simpson and councilman Don Tipps, there is a non-binding letter of intent with Fermi; however, there is one important piece of info they gave.

Any formal water contract must be approved by the council in a vote. As of now, there is no binding contract to sell our water to the plant.

Potential Protest Forming

With so many upset at the potential for an agreement to come together, some are looking for ways to protest the concept and not allow this to happen. With that said, it does appear that a protest has either been planned or is in the feeling out stages.

According to this Reddit post, someone appears to be trying to organize a protest, calling it "Lake Meredith Refill Day". They are attempting to set up the protest for November 7.

What Would The Protest Be

The concept of the protest would be everyone having a gallon of water with them, then marching from Fritch to the Sanford Fritch boat launch, then pouring that gallon of water into Lake Meredith.

According to the comments section, it doesn't seem that there is a whole lot of traction for the protest. Many have said they don't see the point, and others are pointing out where the water from Lake Meredith comes from. Stay tuned, this could get interesting.