San Antonio City Councilmember Ric Galvan is calling for a comprehensive review of how rapidly expanding data centers are reshaping the region’s power demand, water use, and neighborhood landscapes.
Galvan's Council Consideration Request (CCR) comes amid a wave of large-scale developments on the far West Side—an area that now hosts the highest concentration of data centers in the city.
Galvan said the facilities are essential to the digital economy but warned their growth “has far outpaced public policy.” Residents in District 6, he said, are increasingly concerned about the strain on local resources and a lack of long-term planning. “Our city cannot afford to wait until resource demands outpace our infrastructure,” he added, urging a citywide approach rather than a district-by-district response.
The proposed policy discussion—titled Data Center Response: Planning and Policy Discussion—asks the City Council Governance Committee to examine what tools San Antonio has to regulate data centers through zoning, permitting, and development codes.
The analysis would include the resource intensity of both existing and proposed facilities, with a focus on electricity consumption, water use, and environmental impacts such as noise and impervious cover.
A recent policy brief from the Houston Advanced Research Center and the University of Houston Energy underscores the urgency: a typical mid-sized data center consumes roughly 300,000 gallons of water per day, comparable to the needs of 1,000 homes.
Statewide, water usage by data centers is projected to surge nearly ninefold—from 46 billion gallons in 2025 to an estimated 399 billion gallons by 2030, potentially accounting for up to 7% of Texas’s total water consumption.
Galvan’s CCR also calls for closer coordination with local universities, research groups, CPS Energy, and SAWS to better track the long-term sustainability of the industry. As San Antonio pursues economic growth in tech sectors, city leaders will now debate whether stronger guardrails are needed to ensure data centers expand responsibly without overwhelming the region’s power grid or water supply.
Guest:
Ric Galvan is the San Antonio City Council representative for District 6.
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This episode will be recorded on Wednesday, November 19, 2025, at 12:30 p.m.
