Texas is already dealing with the reality of water scarcity. In fast-growing cities and drought-prone regions across the state, water planners are grappling with an uncomfortable reality: demand is rising while supplies are increasingly strained by heat, population growth and aging infrastructure.
For example, in the coastal city of Corpus Christi, officials are projecting a water emergency due to the industrial demand, poor planning and the drought.
Now a new report, Thirsty Data and the Lone Star State: The Impact of Data Center Growth on Texas’ Water Supply, indicates that without modernized planning and policy updates, the state faces a collision between finite water supplies and one of the world’s most resource-intensive industries.
The paper from The Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC), a nonprofit sustainability research organization, says data centers are already emerging as major water users in Texas, both directly for cooling and indirectly through the electricity they consume.
The report estimates that existing Texas data centers use about 25 billion gallons of water a year, or about 0.4% of total statewide water use. That number could climb sharply in the years ahead.
HARC says Texas had 464 data centers as of September 2025, clustered mainly in Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, Austin and West Texas. By 2030, depending on the pace of growth and the technology companies choose for cooling and power, annual water demand tied to data centers could rise to between 29 billion and 161 billion gallons.
For state and local leaders, the concern is not just the scale of that demand, but how little is publicly tracked.
The report says Texas does not currently require enough detailed public information about how much water and electricity large users such as data centers consume. And the State Water Plan does not yet include projected water demand from data centers, even though Texas already faces a significant projected water shortage.
Supporters of data center growth argue the facilities bring jobs, tax revenue and a bigger role for Texas in the digital economy. But the HARC report says those gains should not come without stronger oversight, especially in a state where water shortages can quickly become economic and political crises.
The paper recommends requiring better reporting of water and electricity use, including large demand users in long-term water planning, reforming groundwater rules, and pushing or requiring companies to conserve more water through dry cooling, reuse systems, brackish water and other alternative supplies.
The report’s broader message is that Texas cannot manage what it does not measure. If data centers are going to become a larger part of the state’s future, HARC argues, then their water use should be tracked, planned for and constrained by policies that protect the public’s water supply.
Guests:
Carlos Rubinstein served as a commissioner of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) from 2009–2013. He has also served as deputy executive director of TCEQ and as Rio Grande Watermaster. Rubinstein is the Chairman of the Texas Water Foundation and a Board Member of Texas Water Trade.
Dr. Erin Kinney is HARC’s Manager of Coastal Resilience and Communities and a Senior Research Scientist.
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