Key facts
- Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered regulators to penalize data centers for water use reporting violations.
- Data centers and other large water consumers failing to report usage may face civil and criminal violations.
- Failure to comply with water use surveys will result in denial of new or renewed environmental permits.
- Texas is reviewing its regulations for data centers, which are rapidly expanding in the state.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has directed state regulators to impose legal consequences on data centers and other large water-consuming entities that fail to comply with water use reporting requirements. The governor's office stated that these major water users appear to have committed civil and criminal violations by not providing the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) with required information about their water usage.
The state is currently overhauling its regulations for server warehouses, a sector experiencing rapid growth in Texas, particularly for artificial intelligence infrastructure. The Texas water regulator is surveying data centers about their current and expected water consumption. Facilities that fail to return the survey by the deadline will be denied new or renewed environmental permits, which are necessary for their operation.