Greg Abbott Orders Penalties for Data Center Water Reporting Failures

Governor Greg Abbott directed the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) on September 14 to penalize data centers and other major water users that failed to comply with state laws requiring the disclosure of water usage. The directive follows a March 1 deadline for the 2025 water use survey, with reports indicating only about 28% of surveyed data centers responded over the last three years. Abbott stated that noncompliant entities may have committed civil and criminal violations, including Class C misdemeanors.

Penalties for non-compliance include $500 fines and the potential disqualification from environmental permits, amendments, or renewals issued by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The TWDB is tasked with using its enforcement authority to penalize past failures and impose legal consequences for future non-compliance, with a progress update due to the governor by October 14.

This crackdown expands on an August order requiring the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to audit data centers in the interconnection process. Facilities that fail these audits, which verify water consumption and the use of efficient technologies, will be denied connection to the state power grid. The move comes as Texas faces a data center boom, with annual consumption projected to reach 161 billion gallons by 2030.

Democratic gubernatorial nominee Gina Hinojosa criticized the directive as "lip service," claiming Abbott has made Texas the "Wild West of data centers" while accepting millions in donations from their executives.