Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered the Texas Water Development Board to start penalizing data centers that refuse to report how much water they use, after years of records showing most facilities simply ignore the state’s mandatory survey.
The order comes after the Texas Tribune reported that less than 30 percent of data centers responded to the state’s water usage survey last year, with response rates dipping as low as 28 percent over the past three years. Abbott has told the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) to give him an update on compliance and enforcement by mid-October.
“Data centers must share the duty to protect Texas water,” Abbott said. “The Texas Water Code requires a complete and accurate water use survey. I direct the Texas Water Development Board to use its enforcement authority to penalize past failures and to impose legal consequences for any future failure to comply.”
The TWDB has surveyed data centers and other industrial facilities annually since 2020, requesting monthly water use figures. State law makes non-response a Class C misdemeanor, but the TWDB itself has no prosecution power — it’s a non-regulatory agency. Enforcement is supposed to fall to local district attorneys and law enforcement. Agency staff told the Texas Tribune in July that they don’t even track how many fines, if any, have ever been issued.
The board says it intends to “compel all water users” to comply, arguing it can’t do its job of planning the state’s water future without accurate consumption data from industry.
A Fast-Growing List of Non-Responders
The survey reaches roughly 4,700 municipal water systems and 3,200 industrial facilities by mail, including any data center using more than 10 million gallons a year — the state’s threshold for a “significant industrial user.” It asks about annual water volume, water source, whether the facility buys or self-supplies water, and whether it generates its own power. It does not ask about cooling technology, historically the biggest driver of water use at these sites.
The number of data centers on the state’s radar has exploded. From 2020 to 2022, the TWDB surveyed fewer than five data centers a year, and all of them responded. By 2023, that grew to 22 facilities with a 32 percent response rate. In 2024, 67 facilities were surveyed and only 28 percent responded. Last year, the agency surveyed 329 data centers, with just under 30 percent responding — and among the 267 facilities newly added to its tracking system, only 22.5 percent bothered to respond at all.
The 2025 survey named the state’s heaviest data center water users: a Bitdeer facility in Rockdale, a Google facility in Midlothian, and a QTS facility and a Meta facility, both in Fort Worth. The Bitdeer site alone consumes more than 300 million gallons a year — roughly what a Texas town of 3,500 people uses annually. Most of the state’s data centers are concentrated in North Texas, where water demand is highest.
Grid Access Now on the Line Too
Abbott has separately directed the TWDB to work with the Public Utility Commission of Texas, water utilities, and ERCOT on an audit of data centers seeking to connect to the power grid. That August directive requires the audit to collect information on water consumption, water sourcing, and cooling technology. Under Abbott’s order, any project that fails the audit will be denied grid interconnection.
