Decisions being made now will shape how billions of dollars for Texas water infrastructure are spent and whether communities most affected by flooding, aging pipes, pollution, and water stress have a real say.
Last month, Bayou City Waterkeeper submitted written comments to the Texas House Natural Resources Committee as part of its interim charge hearings. These comments build directly on the advocacy work we did during the 89th Legislative Session, and they’re aimed at making sure that work translates into real accountability as implementation begins.
We weighed in on two interim charges:
1. Implementation of HJR 7/SB 7 and the Texas Water Fund
Last session, we helped push for the passage of House Joint Resolution 7 (HJR 7) and a strengthened Senate Bill 7 (SB 7). Together, these measures shaped the next phase of Texas water infrastructure funding: House Joint Resolution 7 proposed the constitutional amendment behind Proposition 4, which dedicates state sales tax revenue to the Texas Water Fund, while Senate Bill 7 updated how the Texas Water Fund and related water infrastructure financing programs are administered.
Now the real test begins: how the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) administers the billions of dollars flowing through the Texas Water Fund. Our comments to the Committee focused on:
- Stronger public engagement: longer comment periods (45–60 days), plain-language summaries, and proactive outreach to frontline communities (those most directly affected by flooding, pollution, aging infrastructure, and water affordability challenges) who are too often shut out of the process.
- Better scoring methodology: current metrics like Annual Median Household Income can mask pockets of poverty within large service areas, leaving disadvantaged neighborhoods overlooked.
- Transparency tools: a public, project-level dashboard tracking funding, project type, and status.
- Prioritizing water reuse and loss mitigation: cost-effective strategies (Houston alone loses over 30 billion gallons of treated water a year) that shouldn’t get crowded out by capital-intensive new supply projects.
- Bridging the gap to Proposition 4 revenue: with the $1 billion annual dedication not flowing until Fiscal Year 2028, which begins September 1, 2027, we urged the Committee to push TWDB on solicitation status updates, expanded principal forgiveness for disadvantaged communities, and a clear public timeline for when and how new funding will be available.
2. Data Center Water Use and Conservation
Data centers can require large amounts of water directly for cooling and indirectly through the electricity needed to power them.
As Texas’s data center boom accelerates, we joined the Texas Living Waters coalition in urging the Committee to close major gaps in oversight before they become a crisis. Bayou City Waterkeeper’s recommendations are rooted in our work this spring, co-authoring the joint Texas Living Waters/Houston Advanced Research Center policy report on data center water use published in May 2026.
Texas data centers used roughly 25 billion gallons of water in 2025 (counting both direct use and the water embedded in power generation). This number could climb as high as 161 billion gallons by 2030. Our recommendations included:
- Mandatory water use reporting to the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) and TWDB, covering both direct and indirect (energy-related) water use.
- Ending NDAs that hide water impacts from the communities living next to these facilities.
- Prioritizing non-potable water, reclaimed water, and treated wastewater for cooling.
- Enforceable efficiency standards and not just voluntary pledges.
- Fair-share cost recovery so ratepayers aren’t subsidizing industrial infrastructure upgrades.
- Binding water replenishment requirements sized to a facility’s full water footprint, not just on-site use.
- Protecting water-stressed areas, including Houston, where abundance of water on paper can mask real vulnerability when paired with flooding risk and aging infrastructure.
Why this engagement matters:
Both sets of comments reflect the same throughline in our advocacy: the work continues through and after implementation. Real protection for Texas communities and waterways depends on how agencies like TWDB and the PUC are guided by our legislature to implement sustainable policies. We’ll keep showing up for State Revolving Fund (SRF) and Texas Water Fund oversight, and we’re already preparing to carry these recommendations forward into the 90th Legislative Session.
Read our full written comments:
- Texas Water Fund and HJR 7/SB 7 implementation comments
- Data center water use and conservation comments
For questions about our legislative work, please contact Guadalupe Fernandez at guadalupe@bayoucitywaterkeeper.org or Usman Mahmood usman@bayoucitywaterkeeper.org.