conserving water

Critics say the governor must call legislators to Austin to pass state laws regulating data centers.

As more and more data center developers submit proposals to build in Texas, questions about how they will impact Texas' grid and contribute to drought conditions across the state are widespread.

On Monday, the governor ordered the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to audit all data centers wanting to connect to the state’s power grid.

While a new state law partly limits data center groundwater use, in reality, data centers avoid water permits entirely by buying water from utilities. Residents are demanding answers in communities like Luther and Yukon.

The state’s resilient, adaptable farmers can raise just about anything and use less water doing it. But will enough people buy what they produce?

Data centers use water to cool their massive arrays of computer servers. A state agency sent out a survey to figure out how much, but less than a third of the companies responded.

The state’s resilient, adaptable farmers can raise just about anything and use less water doing it. But will enough people buy what they produce?

When a water well in western Kansas was measured in 1966, the water table was about 95 feet below the ground. When it was measured in January, water was 157 feet deep - a decline of just over 60 feet in 60 years. What's happening in the Ogallala Aquifer?

A new UT Austin report estimates data centers could account for up to 9% of Texas water use by 2040.

Almost all of Colorado is experiencing drought after a record-dry winter and the impacts are already starting to show in agricultural communities.