Texas attorney general sends 156 data centers letters demanding water-use reports

The Texas attorney general’s office sent letters to 156 data center developments on Wednesday, October 15, 2026, telling them to report how much water they use. The letters went to developments in 32 counties, from Harris and Dallas to Lubbock, Midland and El Paso, according to the office’s announcement. They require each recipient to provide “current and accurate information about their water usage.”

“Data center developers must follow the law and respect the Texans and communities affected by their operations,” Attorney General Ken Paxton said in the release. “I am actively investigating data centers across Texas to make sure that Texans and our natural resources are protected.”

Why the state is asking

Texas law requires anyone who receives the Texas Water Development Board’s annual water-use survey to answer it. KTSM reported that the requirement sits in Section 16.012 of the Texas Water Code, and that facilities which operated during any part of 2025 and received the 2026 survey must report their 2025 water use. Many data centers did not. The Texas Tribune reported in September that the survey, which the state uses to forecast future water needs, had received responses from as few as 28% of data centers.

Paxton announced an investigation into hundreds of data center developments on September 24, focused on those that had not responded to the survey, according to a timeline compiled by the law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher. The October 15 letters are the next step in that investigation, the office said.

Part of a wider squeeze

The letters follow a series of orders from Governor Greg Abbott. On August 3 he directed the Public Utility Commission and ERCOT, the state grid operator, to audit every data center moving through ERCOT’s interconnection process before any more are approved. His letter said ERCOT was considering about 474 gigawatts of requests to connect to the grid, more than five times the state’s record peak demand, with about 90% of those requests coming from data centers, Willkie reported.

On September 14, Abbott directed the Water Development Board to compel data centers to comply with water-use reporting and to pursue “legal consequences” for past and future noncompliance, KBTX reported. On September 21 he ordered the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to stop issuing permits to data center projects until the audit is complete. “Until they do, TCEQ will issue no permits sought by data center projects,” he wrote, according to the Texas Tribune. The audit asks for each project’s electricity use, water use, effect on local communities, ownership and tax breaks.

What the letters do not say

The office has not published the letters or named the developments that received them. KBTX asked for copies and had not received a response. The announcement does not say that any recipient has broken the law, and the investigation is ongoing, KPRC reported. FOX 7 Austin reported that officials say facilities that fail to comply could face fines and could become ineligible for certain permits and renewals.

The 32 counties named in the release are 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 and Williamson.