Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is urging the Texas Water Development Board to enforce penalties against data centers that fail to respond to a state inquiry into their water usage.
“Major water users, including data centers, appear to have committed civil and criminal violations by failing to provide the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) with information about water usage as required by the Texas Water Code,” Abbott, a Republican, said in a Monday letter to TWDB Chairwoman L’Oreal Stepney.
“Data centers must share the duty to protect Texas water,” Abbott said in an accompanying press release. “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.”
The TWDB’s annual Water Use Survey is due every March. However, this year, many data centers — fast becoming some of the biggest water guzzlers in the state — failed to fill out the mandatory survey.
A data center that fails to complete and return the survey commits a Class C misdemeanor and is subject to a $500 fine. However, critics argue that data centers, many owned by corporations with billions in annual revenue, won’t bat an eyelash at a paltry $500 fine.
A data center that fails to complete and return the survey is also ineligible for Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) permits, amendments or renewals, according to the governor’s press release.
The notice from the Governor’s Office added that TWDB must enforce the violations regarding noncompliant data centers, including referral to the appropriate county or district attorney and notice to TCEQ for possible permit disqualification.
“The TWDB recognizes the need for complete water-use reporting from major water users, including data centers,” Kaci Woodrome, chief communications officer of the Texas Water Development Board, told the Current via email. “Those reports are critical to the agency’s long-term water planning. At the direction of Governor Abbott, the TWDB will compel all water users to comply with Texas Water Code survey requirements so that the State has the information it needs to plan for Texas’ future water needs.”
However, Woodrome didn’t respond to the Current’s request for specifics on how the directive would be enforced — or how many centers have responded to date.
On Aug. 3, Abbott 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.
“Any data center project that fails to complete the audit process must be denied interconnection,” Abbott’s release stated, meaning the computing facilities would be denied a hookup to water utilities.
TWDB is coordinating with the Public Utility Commission of Texas and ERCOT to audit water consumption, sources of water supply and implementation of water-efficient technologies, according to Abbott.
Abbott stated in the release that “failure to respond to that request will trigger TWDB’s independent enforcement authority.”
TWDB is due to update the governor by Oct. 14 on the progress of its enforcement activities and again once its audit is complete.
Meanwhile, a voluntary survey on data center power usage has generated responses from just 30% of the facilities surveyed and lacks the enforcement mechanisms of the TWDB water-usage survey.
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