Overview
Data Center Water Demand Is Growing Faster Than Texas Can Count It
The Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) report Thirsty Data and the Lone Star State (January 2026) counted 464 operating data centers in Texas and 70 more under development, using an estimated 25 billion gallons in 2025. Its 2030 range runs from 29 to 161 billion gallons depending on cooling choices. The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) State Water Plan already projects statewide shortages of 1.6 trillion gallons a year by 2030 if no new supply is built, and data centers that opened in 2025 will not appear in that plan until 2032.
Water supply in Texas is split between groundwater, managed by local groundwater conservation districts, and surface water, permitted by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and sold by river authorities. Groundwater supplies a little over half of all water used in the state, most of it for irrigation. Unlike power, no single grid operator or statewide market allocates it.
| State planner | Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) |
|---|---|
| Surface water permits | TCEQ |
| Groundwater | Local conservation districts |
| Data centers operating | 464 (HARC) |
| Under development | 70 (HARC) |
| 2025 data center use | ~25 billion gallons |
| 2030 projection | 29 to 161 billion gallons |
| New funding | Texas Water Fund, up to $1B a year from 2027 |
Regions
Each Buildout Region Draws on a Different Aquifer or River
Ogallala pumping for irrigation has exceeded recharge for decades. Amarillo agreed in October 2025, by a 4-1 council vote, to sell Fermi America up to 2.5 million gallons a day at twice the standard industrial rate. In San Antonio, Edwards Aquifer Stage 3 restrictions start when the J-17 index well falls below 640 feet above sea level; during 2023-2024 Stage 3 limits, Microsoft and Army Corps data centers in San Antonio used a combined 463 million gallons, per San Antonio Water System data. In Williamson County, BRA's East Williamson County system draws on Lake Granger and is adding a second pipeline to lift delivery from 15 to at least 50 million gallons a day for Taylor and neighboring utilities.
| Source | Manager | Region | Industrial load |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ogallala Aquifer | Panhandle groundwater districts | Texas Panhandle | Fermi America Project Matador, Amarillo |
| Edwards Aquifer | Edwards Aquifer Authority | San Antonio to Hays County | Microsoft and other San Antonio data centers |
| Trinity Aquifer and Trinity River | Trinity River Authority, local districts | DFW, Hood County | Google Midlothian, QTS and Meta Fort Worth, Sailfish Comanche Circle |
| Brazos River | Brazos River Authority (BRA) | Williamson, Milam, Grimes | Samsung Taylor, Sandow Lakes, Terafab |
| Colorado River, Highland Lakes | Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) | Austin metro | Central Texas data centers and fabs |
| Guadalupe River | Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority | San Marcos, New Braunfels | San Marcos and Comal County data centers |
| Gulf Coast Aquifer | Harris-Galveston and Fort Bend subsidence districts | Houston | Petrochemical plants, Brookshire |
Policy
State Orders in 2026 Put Water Reporting Behind Grid Access
On August 3, 2026, Governor Greg Abbott ordered the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) and ERCOT to audit every data center in the large-load interconnection queue, including projected annual and peak water use, water sources, cooling technology and water reuse. On September 14 he ordered TWDB to penalize data centers that skip its annual water use survey; only about 30% of the 329 data centers surveyed for 2025 responded. Non-response is a Class C misdemeanor, and TWDB must refer cases to county or district attorneys. On September 21 he directed TCEQ to pause data center air and water permits until the ERCOT review ends, expected mid-December 2026. See Texas Data Center Moratorium.
Counties have tested their own limits. Hood County commissioners voted 3-2 on February 10, 2026 against a six-month pause on industrial development aimed at Sailfish's Comanche Circle campus, after state Sen. Paul Bettencourt wrote to Attorney General Ken Paxton that counties lack authority to impose moratoriums. Hill County voted 3-2 in May 2026 for a one-year pause on new data centers in unincorporated areas, the first by a Texas county.
Funding is growing. Voters approved Proposition 6 in November 2023, creating the Texas Water Fund with $1B, and Proposition 4 in November 2025, dedicating up to $1B a year of state sales tax revenue to the fund from 2027 for 20 years.
Brownfield Water
Old Power Plant Sites Come With Intakes and Reservoirs
Former power and smelter sites carry water infrastructure that greenfield sites must build from scratch. In Grimes County, WIT TECH LLC, a company tied to Elon Musk, bought parcels on May 27, 2026 that include the Navasota River pump station the Texas Municipal Power Agency used to refill Gibbons Creek Reservoir, plus land on the reservoir, a week before the county approved tax abatements for Terafab. No transfer of reservoir water rights has been reported. In Milam County, the Sandow Lakes site sits on the former Alcoa Rockdale smelter and Sandow power plant lands and lakes. In the Permian Basin, Chevron plans to cool the gas plant serving Microsoft's Pecos campus with brackish groundwater. See Brownfield Inheritance and Water and Cooling.
Record
Dataset Record
- Sources
- Houston Advanced Research Center, Texas Water Development Board, Office of the Governor, Texas Tribune, Energy Capital HTX, KSAT, Texas Public Radio, KWTX, Brazos River Authority, City of Amarillo, ABC 7 Amarillo, San Antonio Current, The Register, Modo Energy
- Last verified
- October 2026