Gov. Greg Abbott orders Texas water agency to penalize data centers that don’t report their water usage
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has directed the Texas Water Development Board to penalize data centers that fail to report their water usage, citing low compliance with state surveys. This move aims to ensure accurate water demand projections amidst growing industrial consumption. Additionally, Abbott ordered an audit of data centers seeking power grid interconnection, with non-compliant projects to be denied access.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has issued a directive to the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB), compelling the state agency to enforce penalties against data centers that do not comply with mandated water usage reporting. This order stems from a consistent pattern of low response rates to the TWDB's annual water usage survey; in the past year, only 30% of surveyed data centers submitted their information.
The governor emphasized that data centers, which can consume millions of gallons of water annually, must contribute to protecting Texas's water resources. He specifically instructed the TWDB to use its enforcement authority to address both past and future failures to comply with the Texas Water Code's reporting requirements. Although the law prescribes a Class C misdemeanor for non-compliance, the TWDB has previously stated it lacks prosecutorial authority as a non-regulatory agency, with enforcement historically falling to local officials. However, the TWDB's director of Water Supply Planning, Temple McKinnon, noted that compliance is necessary for entities seeking state financial assistance or certain environmental permits.
Prominent examples of large water users cited from 2025 survey results include facilities operated by Bitdeer in Rockdale, Google in Midlothian, and QTS and Meta in Fort Worth. These facilities use hundreds of millions of gallons annually, with Bitdeer's Rockdale operation alone consuming water equivalent to a small town. The overall compliance rate for the survey remains low, especially among the increasing number of new facilities being tracked.
In addition to the water reporting directive, Governor Abbott also ordered the TWDB to coordinate with the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas on an audit. This audit, first announced in August, aims to collect comprehensive data on data centers' water consumption, sources, and cooling technologies, with projects failing to complete it facing denial of power grid interconnection.