The 2022 estimate for how much water was used in Texas in total was 15.2 million acre-feet, or approximately 5 trillion gallons. So these AI centers are accounting for 0.00926% of Texas’ water use.
The issue is not the statewide consumption. The Texas water grid is not one unified system. It’s a patchwork of local aquifers, municipal supplies, and private wells.
If a datacenter is built in an area with a water grid that can not handle its consumption, people will run out of water sooner or later.
(Especially AI) Datacenters are built in areas with low energy costs, as it is their biggest expense, with no regard for the local water levels:
… about two-thirds of new data centers built or in development since 2022 are in places already gripped by high levels of water stress.
Water is often the last consideration when making siting decisions for data centers because it’s cheap compared to the cost of real estate and power, said Sharlene Leurig, a managing member of Fluid Advisors, …
Water laws are often times asinine on a large scale. Depending on where the center is it’d probably be easier to run them out of town or otherwise cut off the water through sabotage than to increase the price of water.
Honest question: wouldn’t it be advantageous to build data centers in cooler areas next to large body’s of water, like the upper Midwest? I’m sure there are metrics I’m ignorant of, but that would seem to make more sense than building in a hot/dry place.
There are many other inefficient uses of water much bigger that these data centers. Texas has a major agriculture sector despite being basically a desert. People love to have green lawns. And a quarter of Texas is currently in a drought.
My point is that if you shut these data centers down right this instant the needle isn’t going to budge much.
The 2022 estimate for how much water was used in Texas in total was 15.2 million acre-feet, or approximately 5 trillion gallons. So these AI centers are accounting for 0.00926% of Texas’ water use.
The issue is not the statewide consumption. The Texas water grid is not one unified system. It’s a patchwork of local aquifers, municipal supplies, and private wells.
If a datacenter is built in an area with a water grid that can not handle its consumption, people will run out of water sooner or later.
(Especially AI) Datacenters are built in areas with low energy costs, as it is their biggest expense, with no regard for the local water levels:
- https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2025-ai-impacts-data-centers-water-data/
So charge them more for the water. The data center builders are making rational decisions based on their costs.
Charging more does not create more water…
Of course not. But it changes the economics that causes things like data centers to be built there.
Water laws are often times asinine on a large scale. Depending on where the center is it’d probably be easier to run them out of town or otherwise cut off the water through sabotage than to increase the price of water.
Honest question: wouldn’t it be advantageous to build data centers in cooler areas next to large body’s of water, like the upper Midwest? I’m sure there are metrics I’m ignorant of, but that would seem to make more sense than building in a hot/dry place.
Cooler areas with large bodies of water tend to have these pesky things called regulations that means they would make slightly less money.
Why are people being asked to reduce showers over such a small amount?
Perhaps there are reasons beyond just these data centers why Texas has a water shortage.
What are you implying? I’m not asking rhetorically.
There are many other inefficient uses of water much bigger that these data centers. Texas has a major agriculture sector despite being basically a desert. People love to have green lawns. And a quarter of Texas is currently in a drought.
My point is that if you shut these data centers down right this instant the needle isn’t going to budge much.
Yeah I love ai hate, but in reality it’s a teeny percentage of any water or energy use