Texas governor directs water board to enforce data center reporting requirements - waterworld.com

Abbott's letter says some large water users have not turned in the information required under the Texas Water Code. He told TWDB to use its legal authority to force compliance and go after violators, and to work with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to pull more data on how much water data centers are burning through.

The timing matters. The Calendar Year 2025 water-use survey was due March 1, 2026, and state law spells out penalties for anyone who skips it. Data centers have become a bigger part of that conversation because they use enormous amounts of water for cooling, and Texas has been adding them fast as tech companies chase cheap land and power across the state.

For anyone on the South Plains, this is bigger than paperwork. Water in West Texas already runs tight. How the state accounts for data centers' water draw affects planning for everyone downstream, from farmers to city utility departments. If TWDB starts pursuing legal consequences, it could set the tone for how aggressively Texas polices industrial water use statewide.

A missed March deadline could end up mattering more to a data center's bottom line than its actual utility bill.