{"id":467368,"date":"2026-10-16T01:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T01:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/467368\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T01:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T01:34:10","slug":"156-texas-data-centers-warned-to-comply-with-water-use-reporting-requirements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/467368\/","title":{"rendered":"156 Texas data centers warned to comply with water use reporting requirements"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792114450_971_ai-and-data-center-fears-among-voters.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"764\" height=\"432\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-v-47e62d5a=\"\"\/> article    <\/p>\n<p data-v-2c6143fb=\"\">AUSTIN, Texas &#8211; The Texas attorney general\u2019s office has sent letters to 156 data center developments across the state urging them to comply with water use reporting requirements.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KTBC\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-2c6143fb=\"\">What we know:<\/p>\n<p data-v-2c6143fb=\"\">Attorney General Ken Paxton said data centers are required by law to respond to the Texas Water Development Board\u2019s water use survey, and many have not done so.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-2c6143fb=\"\">His office announced the letters were being sent out on Thursday, but did not provide any further details regarding what the letters said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KTBC\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-2c6143fb=\"\">What they&#8217;re saying:<\/p>\n<p data-v-2c6143fb=\"\">&#8220;Data center developers must follow the law and respect the Texans and communities affected by their operations,&#8221; Paxton said in a news release.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KTBC\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-2c6143fb=\"\">Dig deeper:<\/p>\n<p data-v-2c6143fb=\"\">Data centers in over 30 counties will be receiving letters. They include: Bexar, Brazos, Cameron, Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ector, El Paso, Glasscock, Harris, Hidalgo, Hood, Lubbock, Maverick, McLennan, Midland, Montgomery, Nacogdoches, Nueces, Pecos, Potter, Randall, Sherman, Tarrant, Tom Green, Travis, Victoria, Waller, Ward, Webb, Wichita, Williamson.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>  State audit looks at data centers&#8217; impact on natural resources\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KTBC\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-2c6143fb=\"\">The backstory:<\/p>\n<p data-v-2c6143fb=\"\">This comes as a statewide audit is being conducted to determine what impact data centers could have on Texas&#8217; power grid and natural resources.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-2c6143fb=\"\">Gov. Gregg Abbott in August instructed state energy regulators to halt approvals for new data center projects <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox26houston.com\/news\/texas-pausing-permits-all-data-centers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">until the audit is completed<\/a>. Information on water use is required to be disclosed as a part of the audit.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-2c6143fb=\"\">The governor also ordered the state\u2019s water development board to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox7austin.com\/news\/texas-data-centers-could-face-penalties-over-water-reporting\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">start penalizing<\/a> major water users like data centers that are not in compliance with reporting requirements.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KTBC\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-2c6143fb=\"\">What&#8217;s next:<\/p>\n<p data-v-2c6143fb=\"\">Failing to comply could make certain data center developments ineligible for permits and renewals, and could result in fines, according to officials.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: The information in this article comes from a press release from the Texas attorney general&#8217;s office and previous Fox Local reporting.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox7austin.com\/tag\/news\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-2c6143fb=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">News<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox7austin.com\/tag\/us\/tx\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-2c6143fb=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Texas<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article AUSTIN, Texas &#8211; The Texas attorney general\u2019s office has sent letters to 156 data center developments across&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,223,216,393],"class_list":["post-467368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-news","tag-tx","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}