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  5. Data Center Development as an Emerging Threat to Aquifer-Dependent Species Biology: A Case Study of the Texas Blind Salamander and the Edwards Aquifer

Data Center Development as an Emerging Threat to Aquifer-Dependent Species Biology: A Case Study of the Texas Blind Salamander and the Edwards Aquifer

File(s)
McGee_John_Project.pdf (1.7 MB)
Permanent Link(s)
https://hdl.handle.net/1813/124249
Collections
Natural Resources Professional Masters Projects
Author
McGee, John
Abstract

The rapid expansion of data center infrastructure presents an underexamined threat to regional groundwater systems and the species that depend on them. This study evaluates the water demand implications of hypothetical data center development on the Edwards Aquifer in south-central Texas, the sole habitat of the federally endangered Texas Blind Salamander (Eurycea rathbuni). Six scenarios crossing three facility sizes (50, 200, and 380 MW) with two cooling technologies (air-cooled and evaporative) were evaluated against 90 years of historical aquifer recharge data. Cooling technology emerges as the dominant variable in water demand. Evaporative cooling requires approximately six times more water than air cooling at every facility size. Even at the individual facility scale, the drought implications are significant. A single 380 MW evaporative facility would consume 11.1% of the 1956 drought-of-record recharge, a year in which Comal Springs flow fell to 31.8 cfs, barely above the 30 cfs threshold at which subterranean cave habitat begins to dewater. The Texas Blind Salamander, which exists as a single population with no capacity for recolonization, depends entirely on the persistence of saturated habitat through these low-flow periods. Any additional withdrawal pressure during comparable conditions further narrows that margin, and at the regional scale the risk compounds as multiple facilities concentrate demand on the same aquifer. The most recent four-year recharge period (2020 to 2023) averaged only 182,750 acre-feet per year, closely paralleling the sustained low-recharge pattern that preceded the 1956 drought, and data center development in the Austin to San Antonio corridor is accelerating into precisely this vulnerability window. A separate analysis of Texas industrial water-use records reveals zero entries under NAICS code 518 (Data Processing, Hosting and Related Services) despite a legal reporting requirement, confirming that data center water consumption is not currently tracked in Texas water planning. These findings support mandatory cooling technology disclosure, water-use efficiency standards for data center permitting in aquifer-dependent regions, and enforcement of existing reporting requirements before the Edwards Aquifer Habitat Conservation Plan's Incidental Take Permit expires in 2028.

Date Issued
2026
Committee Chair
Morreale, Stephen
Degree Discipline
Natural Resources
Degree Name
M.P.S., Natural Resources
Degree Level
Master of Professional Studies
Rights
Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Rights URI
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/
Type
dissertation or thesis

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