10/03/2026
AMAZON GOT ITS WATER PERMITS. THE BIGGER QUESTIONS ARE STILL WAITING.
Amazon's massive $10 BILLION data center campus near Boling just cleared another hurdle.
On September 8, regulators approved permits allowing Amazon to pump as much as 78.2 MILLION GALLONS OF GROUNDWATER over roughly 2½ years for construction, offices, restrooms and fire protection.
And that's on top of permits approved in May for another 16.9 MILLION GALLONS.
Amazon says those numbers are maximum limits and that it expects to use far less. It also says groundwater will NOT be used to cool its data centers.
But here's where this gets interesting.
While residents were fighting those groundwater permits, Wharton County was operating under a NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT WITH A CONSULTING FIRM CONNECTED TO THE PROJECT, limiting what county officials could disclose about certain business and development details.
Then, just 13 DAYS AFTER THE SEPTEMBER PERMITS WERE ISSUED, Gov. Greg Abbott ordered state agencies to stop moving forward with data-center regulatory approvals while Texas audits their impact on water and the electric grid.
And the biggest questions are still unresolved.
Amazon previously told the Lower Colorado River Authority it anticipated potentially needing about 500 ACRE-FEET OF SURFACE WATER PER YEAR, roughly 163 MILLION GALLONS, as the campus develops.
Amazon now says the 13 BUILDINGS CURRENTLY PLANNED WON'T USE WATER FOR COOLING, and no application for that surface water has been filed.
Then there's electricity.
Depending on how the buildings ultimately operate, the campus COULD REACH ROUGHLY 780 MEGAWATTS OF DEMAND, about the amount of power used by 195,000 residential customers at peak demand.
Amazon has not confirmed that total.
So forget the slogans from either side for a minute.
We're talking about nearly 3,000 ACRES, billions of dollars, enormous potential water and power demands, residents fighting for information, and a county that signed an NDA while the project moved forward.
If something this big were coming to MONTGOMERY COUNTY, how much would you expect county officials to tell you BEFORE the bulldozers showed up?
ℹ️ My stories come from official statements, public records and credible reporting. Project plans and estimates can change as permitting and construction continue. Got a story or tip? Message the page and I'll take a look.