Texas Water Development Board
Texas state agency responsible for planning and financing water resources and infrastructure.
On 21 September, the Texas Water Development Board began a water-use audit of Texas data centres after Governor Greg Abbott paused new permits.
Last refreshed: 24 September 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Timeline for Texas Water Development Board
Conducted the water half of Abbott's audit
Data Centres: Boom and Backlash: Abbott halts Texas data centre permitsBackground
The Texas Water Development Board is Texas’s state water-planning and financing agency. It develops the state water plan from regional plans, oversees flood planning, and funds local water supply, wastewater, flood-control and conservation projects. Its September 2026 data-centre water-use audit places that standing REMIT inside a live question about whether new industrial demand can be supplied.
Texas voters created the board in 1957 through a constitutional amendment that authorised $200m in state water-development bonds. A three-member board appointed by the governor administers loan and grant programmes, including support for economically distressed rural communities. The agency matters because it links long-range water planning to the public finance that helps local governments build infrastructure.
Its current relevance rests on that bridge between resource planning and project finance. The data-centre audit concerns water demand, not the permit decision itself, which Governor Abbott directed to the environmental regulator on 21 September.
The board audits water demand
On 21 September, the Texas Water Development Board began examining data-centre water use as Texas paused new and pending data-centre permits. The board’s role is the water half of the state response, while the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality handles the permit freeze.
The audit puts the board’s planning and finance REMIT into a fast-growing infrastructure dispute. Developers must show that proposed facilities can meet their grid and water needs, after a queue of proposed demand reached 438 gigawatts, with data centres accounting for about 90%.
