Texas law shields San Antonio-area data center water usage from public records requests
A Texas law, House Bill 875, is being broadly interpreted to shield data center water usage from public records requests in the San Antonio area, hindering transparency. Residents and local leaders in places like Cibolo (Guadalupe County) are concerned about environmental impacts, particularly water consumption, from new data center developments by companies like Legacy Investing. State Representative Diego Bernal, the law's author, believes it's being misinterpreted and needs to be fixed.
The rapid expansion of data centers across South Texas is raising concerns about water usage transparency, as a state law is being broadly interpreted to shield this information from public records requests. KSAT Investigates found that the San Antonio Water System (SAWS) cited House Bill 875, a six-year-old Texas law, to deny requests for water usage data from 36 data centers in Bexar County over the past three years.
State Representative Diego Bernal, who authored House Bill 875, stated that the law was intended to protect individual and household data, not to obscure commercial entities' resource consumption. He believes SAWS is misinterpreting his bill and indicated that the problem is