A Potential Alternative Water Source for Data Center Development

The proliferation of data centers in West Texas has caused concerns across the state about the availability of resources needed to support their operation. Abundant energy and hundreds of square miles of open land have made West Texas attractive for data center developers. However, much of the concern centers on the water demands associated with data center operations, both for direct cooling needs and for electricity generation dedicated to powering these facilities. Known water resources in this part of the U.S. are rapidly declining with no adequate replacement.

But what if there was an available alternative to drawing water from traditional sources like the Ogallala Aquifer? Researchers at the Bureau of Economic Geology have been conducting an extensive assessment of a possible new resource: the Dockum Aquifer, a deeper aquifer containing more brackish water. Although water from the Dockum could serve the cooling requirements of new data centers, it would require varying degrees of treatment, with differing costs, to be safe to use. But the potential is there.

There is great variability within the Dockum, and Bureau researchers Lucy Ko, J.-P. Nicot, Edna Rodriguez Calzado, Andrea Salas Rivera, and Ning Lin compiled data from 895 groundwater samples collected across the aquifer into a three-dimensional hydrogeochemical framework showing salinity classes and major-ion chemistry. The potential of the Dockum depends on local water chemistry, aquifer productivity, treatment requirements, management of treatment residuals, and responsible long-term withdrawal planning. With further investigation of the aquifer and an informed strategy by developers, the Dockum Aquifer could be a viable solution to cooling new data centers.

"We are cautiously optimistic about the potential of the Dockum to address some of the water resource concerns about data center development in West Texas," remarked Dr. Lorena Moscardelli, Director of the Bureau. "There's still a lot of work to be done, but our researchers have done a great job of laying a solid foundation for further research."

This research was funded by the Energy Institute at The University of Texas at Austin and the State of Texas Advanced Resource Recovery (STARR) and COMPASS programs at the Bureau of Economic Geology at UT-Austin's Jackson School of Geosciences.