Texas has always welcomed growth, industry and technological innovation. But growth stops being progress when private development threatens public necessities.
The rapid expansion of artificial-intelligence data centers presents Texas with that risk.
These facilities promise investment, tax revenue and technological advancement, but they also require enormous amounts of electricity, land and, depending on their cooling systems, water. The concern is not simply how much water data centers use statewide. The greater danger is where that water comes from, when it is withdrawn and what happens to communities relying on the same source.
A data center may consume only a small percentage of Texas’ total water while placing an intolerable burden on one town, aquifer or rural water system. Statewide averages can conceal local damage.
During the hottest and driest weeks of the year, residents, farms, hospitals, power plants and data centers may all need the most water at the same time. Texans should not discover during a drought that a private computing facility has secured a stronger contractual claim to local water than the people who live there.
The danger is especially serious in places dependent on declining groundwater, private wells, spring-fed rivers or small municipal systems. Parts of the Hill Country rely on closely connected aquifers, springs and streams. Much of West Texas and the Panhandle depends on groundwater being depleted faster than it can naturally recover.
Yet Texas has no comprehensive statewide siting law identifying where large data centers should not be built.
Cities may use zoning, groundwater districts may regulate certain wells and environmental agencies may review individual permits. But counties generally have little zoning authority in unincorporated areas. That leaves many rural communities with the fewest tools to protect themselves.
This is not an argument against technology. It is an argument for responsible government.
Gov. Greg Abbott’s order directing state regulators to audit proposed data centers is an important first step. But an audit should be the beginning, not the final answer.
Texas needs a statewide data-center siting framework based on one principle:
Human necessities must have priority over computational demand.
Large data centers should be required to disclose projected and actual water use, including peak summer demand. Annual averages are not enough. Texans deserve to know how much water a facility may require during drought and extreme heat.
Projects should also undergo cumulative-impact reviews. Eight data centers drawing resources from the same region cannot responsibly be evaluated as eight unrelated developments.
Texas should restrict potable-water-dependent data centers in areas with declining aquifers, recurring drought restrictions, vulnerable private wells, spring-fed ecosystems or insufficient municipal reserves. Where projects are permitted, companies should use reclaimed water, dry cooling, closed-loop cooling or other low-water systems whenever feasible.
Counties and groundwater districts also need greater authority to reject or limit projects that threaten long-term water security. Developers should pay the full cost of the pipelines, substations, roads and emergency capacity they require. Texans should not subsidize industrial expansion only to face higher bills or reduced reliability.
Every facility should also have a drought-curtailment plan established before construction begins. Drinking water, sanitation, hospitals, firefighting, food production and essential community services must come first during a shortage.
Texas does not have to choose between innovation and conservation. It must insist that innovation operate within limits established by human need and environmental reality.
A computer workload can be moved. A depleted aquifer, dried spring or damaged watershed cannot.
Computation should be located around available resources. Human necessities should not be treated as available resources for computation.
—William Cook
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