U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) sent a letter to several New Mexico state agencies Monday afternoon asking them to provide a “clear public accounting” of the various water sources that will support the Project Jupiter data center under construction in southern New Mexico.

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In addition to the amount of water the project needs, Stansbury said she is asking for details about the water rights and permits behind each source of water Project Jupiter plans to use.

Stansbury sent the letter to New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, state Environment Secretary James Kenney, State Engineer Elizabeth Anderson and the chair and director of the Interstate Stream Commission. Stansbury requested their responses in writing by the close of business Friday. Source has pending requests with all agencies and will update this story as needed.

Stansbury’s letter comes on the heels of two Sunday night orders from the New Mexico Supreme Court, which ordered the temporary end to some water use for Project Jupiter’s construction and paused the development’s pending air quality permit hearing.

Both Supreme Court orders were unanimous.

One came after the Center for Biological Diversity alleged that the Office of the State Engineer violated state law by approving the emergency drilling of a well for Project Jupiter without first providing public notice or holding a hearing.

The other came after the Santa Fe-based clean energy group New Energy Economy alleged that the air quality permit hearing, which was scheduled to begin in September, appeared to be premature, considering that the pipeline needed to feed Project Jupiter’s power system is still stuck in the federal regulatory process.

Since Project Jupiter’s plans became public last year, Stansbury said she has noticed that many southern New Mexico residents feel as if their county government approved the development without adequately informing the public about it.

“For over a year, New Mexicans have been asking basic questions about this project — about its viability because of water, about land use, about the use of public taxpayer dollars,” Stansbury said on a call with reporters Monday afternoon. “The huge outrage that New Mexicans have issued in this case as it has moved forward…is not only warranted, we believe that our state agencies need to be providing more answers to the public.”

Stansbury said she is concerned that developments like Project Jupiter will deplete the Rio Grande and make it difficult for the state to comply with the terms of the recent settlement agreement in the long-running Texas v. New Mexico and Colorado case.

“In New Mexico, water is life, water is culture, water is place and water is essential to everything that our people do,” Stansbury said. “We cannot allow an industrial water user that might threaten our state’s ability to meet the needs of our own farmers and ranchers, our own communities, our own acequias, our own tribal communities…to threaten our ability to meet our own needs without a transparent process that is open to the public.”

Regarding the state Supreme Court’s orders, an Oracle spokesperson in a Monday afternoon statement said company leaders were “deeply saddened” that the order to temporarily stop using water, which the company has long said comes from a local sod farm, would impact a local business.

“The immediate impact of this order falls on the region’s only commercial sod farm and the 14 Santa Teresa residents whose jobs depend on its operations,” the statement said. “We will of course comply with the order and remain focused on long-term water stewardship. This includes a responsible, carefully developed plan that protects water as a valuable resource through closed-loop cooling, minimal ongoing use of non-potable water, and a recently announced partnership with Arable to conserve more water in the Rio Grande-Bravo watershed than Project Jupiter uses.”

As for the court’s other order, which temporarily halted the development’s air quality permit hearing, the spokesperson wrote that Oracle and its partners “remain committed to developing Project Jupiter responsibly.”

“The New Mexico Environment Department’s air-permitting process includes a thorough technical review, with many opportunities for public input at every stage in the process. Project Jupiter is meeting applicable permitting requirements, stands ready to proceed with the department’s public hearing process, and is engaging with the community as that review moves forward,” the statement said. “The effort to bypass the department’s established procedural deadlines is unwarranted, but we will continue to share facts about the project transparently and are confident the regulatory process will prevail.”