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USPublished: 14 September 2026
[Regulatory Update] Texas Governor Directs Water Board to Impose Legal Consequences on Data Centres That Fail to Report Water Use
Source:Office of the Governor of Texas
On 14 September 2026, Texas Governor Greg Abbott directed the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) to compel major water users, including data centres, to comply with water use reporting requirements and to impose legal consequences for past and future failures to comply with state law. The Governor's office stated that major water users, including data centres, appear to have committed civil and criminal violations by failing to provide TWDB with required information about water usage.
According to the Governor's office, the Texas Water Code requires recipients of a TWDB survey to complete and return it, and a data centre that fails to do so commits an offense punishable as a crime. A data centre that fails to complete and return the survey on time is ineligible for permits, amendments or renewals from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) under Chapter 11 of the Texas Water Code. The Governor also directed TWDB to partner with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) on its audit of data centres in order to seek additional water use information.
Editor's View
On 3 August 2026, the Governor directed the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) and ERCOT to conduct a comprehensive audit of all data centres advancing through ERCOT's interconnection process, and stated that any data centre project that fails to complete the audit process must be denied interconnection. The 14 September directive brings TWDB into that audit. Completing and returning the TWDB survey is already required under the Texas Water Code; the Governor's directive calls for enforcement of that existing obligation.
※ This article is based on official public information from an external source (Office of the Governor of Texas) and has been analyzed and organized for practical use.
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