Texas Border Business
AUSTIN – Governor Greg Abbott directed the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) to compel major water users, including data centers, to comply with water use reporting requirements and to impose legal consequences for past and future failure to comply with state law. Major water users, including data centers, appear to have committed civil and criminal violations through failure to provide TWDB with required information about water usage. The Governor also directed TWDB to partner with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) on its audit of data centers to seek additional water use information.
“Data centers must share the duty to protect Texas water,” said Governor Abbott. “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.”
TWDB is charged with developing a state water plan that meets the needs of Texans and cannot perform that task if it is denied detailed information on existing and anticipated water consumption. The Texas Water Code requires recipients of a TWDB survey to complete and return it. A data center that fails to complete and return the survey commits an offense punishable as a crime. A data center that fails to timely complete and return the survey is ineligible for TCEQ permits, amendments, or renewals under Chapter 11 of the Texas Water Code. TWDB must enforce those remedies against noncompliant data centers, including referral to the appropriate County or District Attorney and notice to TCEQ for possible permit disqualification.
On August 3, 2026, Governor Abbott directed the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) and ERCOT to conduct a comprehensive audit of all data centers that advance through ERCOT’s interconnection process. That audit requires detailed information on water consumption, sources of water supply, and implementation of water-efficient technologies. Any data center project that fails to complete the audit process must be denied interconnection.
TWDB must coordinate with the PUCT and ERCOT and partner with ERCOT to audit water consumption, sources of water supply, and implementation of water-efficient technologies. Failure to respond to that request will trigger TWDB’s independent enforcement authority. TWDB shall update the Office of the Governor by October 14, 2026, on the progress of its enforcement activities, with further updates thereafter, including when the audit is complete.
Read the Governor’s full letter to TWDB Chairwoman L’Oreal Stepney and Executive Administrator Bryan McMath here.
