Texas Fights and Water Rights

Understanding the current “rule of capture” law on water in Texas - if there is water on or beneath your property, you are entitled to use it. Theoretically, not at the harm of others, but that requires oversight and a determination of “harm”. This is a highly contested Texas law and one that will likely go to the legislative session, it was somewhat alluded to on the Republican primary propositions in March 2026.

https://www.sprouselaw.com/ownership-of-texas-groundwater/

https://texasgop.org/2026-republican-primary-information/

In 2025 two East Texas landowners requested a permit to take 15 billion gallons of water a year from their local aquifer. An aquifer that all residents were collectively drawing 9 billion gallons from annually. These two men wanted to then sell the water - after depleting the resources of the town.

Lawmakers intervened, acknowledging the importance of water to the local community and the nature of the law was not accounting for the increased access we now have to the water through new machinery.

KLTV: House Committee Holds Hearing East Texas Groundwater Rights

Texas Tribune: Dallas businessman sues over stalled plans to export East Texas water

Clayton Tucker Substack: Water Wars: Billionaires vs. East Texans

The question now is this - where are these concerns when it comes to hyperscale datacenters? There is no legislation requiring a closed loop system, there is not legislation limiting the amount of water used on electricity to power the system, and there seems to be no significant action from the state to address this disparity.

As of the day this is written, datacenter companies are still requesting millions of gallons of water a day in certain parts of Texas - because they can.

The technology may be there for closed loop systems - it’s unproven and undocumented - but just like those of us using our iPhone 9, just because the tech is there doesn’t mean anyone’s obligated to upgrade.

Waco Bridge: Water, power, politics: Three challenges for the $10B data center project

Waco Datacenter: Understanding Datacenter Water Consumption in Rural Texas

And, of course, it’s not just the cooling that uses water. To power the facility also requires water:

Houston Chronicle: Data centers are facing scrutiny over their water usage. Here's why that's only part of the picture.

If you’re not convinced or you trust that these consumers will “do the right thing”, you should take a look at Corpus Christi. Our ocean side city in drought, that’s about to charge its residents $500 for using more water than allotted (and potentially cutting off their water), while industry in the city is using 60% of the water.

KSTV: Corpus Christi Water and City leaders address water restrictions, potential $500 fines

Texas Tribune: Corpus Christi delays action on plan to cut water use by 25% if emergency is declared

You could also look directly to San Antonio, where, unfortunately residents were put on drought watch while datacenters just kept going:

Newsweek: Texas Datacenter Uses 50 Billion Gallons of Water As State Faces Drought 

San Antonio is starting to get wary:

San Antonio Report: San Antonio Has Over 20 Datacenters. Officials worry about water and power usage. 

Will the rest of Texas?

The legislature asked for these centers to self report - but so far there is no shared data. Maybe because it would look bad.

Special thanks to Rita B. for bringing the Bass story to our attention!