Regulators approve 3,000-acre Amazon data center in Wharton County, Texas

Wharton County residents continue to express opposition to Amazon building a 3,000-acre data center in the rural farm community located roughly an hour south of Houston.

Abbott announced his data center ban on Sept. 21. The Coastal Bend Groundwater Conservation District issued water permits to Amazon in May and earlier in September.

The CBGCD permits allow Amazon to tap millions of gallons of groundwater a year and don’t apply to millions of gallons of surface water the complex would need.

Amazon is building a 3,000-acre campus outside of Boling, about 10 miles southeast of Wharton. It says the complex will support at least 300 full-time jobs, with 150 becoming available by mid-2027. Construction will generate thousands of additional jobs.

Between 10-13 data center buildings are being built on the complex. Each is equivalent to the size of a Walmart Superstore.

Scarcity of water in rural farm communities is a key reason why so many rural Texas voters oppose data centers. Under Abbott’s tenure, Texas has surpassed Virginia with the most construction of data centers in the country, the Houston Business Journal reported.

Neighboring county judges have raised the alarm about residents and county governments not having water rights, calling on the legislature to act. Texas water rights and water laws are like “the old west,” Bee County Judge George Morrill has said. County officials have also called on the legislature to grant counties zoning authority to regulate data center growth. Without it, county officials say because of private property rights their hands are tied in preventing data center expansion, The Center Square reported.

In response to public outrage and a lack of data center compliance with state laws and regulations, Abbott issued four directives for data centers, including requiring them to reuse their own water. Amazon was among several dozen companies that said they would comply, The Center Square reported.

In a June directive, Abbott ordered state regulators to audit data center companies prior to approving permits to ensure they “pay for their electric infrastructure instead of shifting costs onto Texas families and small businesses, reuse their own water, reduce the cost of electricity for Texans, do not disrupt residential neighborhoods to preserve Texas’ quality of life, and pay their own way and eliminate reliance on outdated taxpayer-funded incentives,” The Center Square reported.

Abbott’s data center ban directed the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to halt all permits sought by data centers until the audits are completed. In another directive, he instructed data centers to follow the law related to water use reporting requirements and for the Texas Water Development Board to enforce penalties.

Amazon has said it will comply and is “building responsibly in Wharton County.” It says it’s “been building and operating data centers for nearly two decades. In that time, we've proven that we are not only good neighbors, but committed long-term collaborators in the communities where we operate and our employees live.”

In an online post Amazon created to explain to residents its water usage and other plans, it says, “The 13 buildings planned on the Wharton County campus will not use water for cooling. No groundwater will be used for data center cooling at this site.” It says it’s working with regional and local water authorities to “develop responsible, nonpotable water solutions for any potential cooling needs” to ensure “that our projects do not negatively impact water needs for the surrounding community.”

“Besides cooling, data centers use water for everyday needs like bathrooms, cleaning, and fire suppression systems. For our current plans, potable use is limited to approximately 16,000 gallons per day, equivalent to roughly 54 households or a typical office building with a similar number of employees,” it adds.

It also says it’s returning more water to communities than it uses in its data center operations, “and we're already 75% of the way there.”

Amazon also created a Wharton County Community Fund and is funding a water replenishment project. The project will help local farmers adopt Alternate Wetting and Drying irrigation practices to reduce flood-based irrigation demand “by 25% or more without reducing crop yields – in the lower Colorado River watershed. … This effort is expected to replenish more than 225 million gallons of water per year” over 10 years.

The CBGCD permits allow Amazon to tap into three wells to supply groundwater for the project’s restrooms, construction crew and fire protection. The Houston Chronicle reported this could draw up to 78.2 million gallons of groundwater over two and a half years. If distributed evenly over the three-year-permit period, that could translate to 31.2 million gallons annually, enough to support 285 average U.S.-sized households, it estimates.

It also notes that Amazon received additional permits to draw up to 16.9 million gallons from two other wells by February 2029 although it doesn’t expect to use the full amount.

Amazon says it leads the industry in water efficiency. Its “cooling systems run on outside air alone about 90 percent of the time” and surface water “is only used during the hottest hours of the year.” Since 2021, it says it’s cut its water use per IT load in half and runs more facilities on reclaimed water than any other cloud provider. It also says its “actively pursuing reclaimed water and other alternative source partnerships” with state water authorities.