GRIDPERMIT
Blog · Tag

Water Rights

Every GridPermit post tagged “Water Rights.” Back to the full blog.

October 18, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Google Turned Down a 20-Year Tax Break in Rural Kansas. Six Weeks Later, It Still Hasn't Signed the Deal.

Barber County, Kansas, population 4,000, talked Google out of a tax exemption and into $320 million over 20 years. The county's own paperwork still says the deal isn't signed.

Financing & InvestmentCommunity OppositionWater Rights
October 16, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Texas Sent 156 Data Centers a Warning Letter About Their Water Use. The Law Behind It Can Only Fine Them $500.

Two companies skipped a legislative hearing rather than explain their water use. Texas just mailed 156 more letters asking the same question, backed by a law that tops out at a $500 fine.

Water RightsPolicyCommercial Readiness
October 16, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Meta's $15 Billion Kentucky Data Center Comes With $115 Million for Water Infrastructure the County Already Needed. Twenty-Eight Mobile-Home Households Have 90 Days to Find Somewhere Else to Live.

Meta hid behind NDAs in rural Kentucky for more than a year. The $115 million water deal it revealed on October 13th is real, and so is the 90-day clock now running on 28 mobile-home families next door.

Zoning & EntitlementWater RightsCommunity Opposition
October 14, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

AMD Just Agreed to Back Fermi's Amarillo AI Campus. The Lease It's Backing Already Missed One Deadline.

Fermi's stock jumped as much as 18% when AMD signed on to support its Texas AI campus. The lease that deal backs already slipped one closing date, and Fermi still has no permanent CEO.

Financing & InvestmentCommercial ReadinessWater Rights
October 11, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

A $6 Billion Data Center Chose One of America's Poorest Counties. The County Has No Zoning Code to Weigh In.

Eagle Rock Partners says it won't ask Jefferson Davis County, Mississippi for a single tax break on its $6 billion campus. The county couldn't grant one if it wanted to — it has no zoning ordinance at all.

Zoning & EntitlementPower & UtilityWater Rights
October 10, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Taylor, Texas Had No Legal Say Over a 664-Acre Data Center Next Door. On October 8th, It Annexed Its Way Into Getting Some.

The site sat in unincorporated Williamson County, outside Taylor's zoning reach entirely. The city annexed it anyway on October 8th — and a 1,400-signature petition to stop the project just got ruled off the ballot.

Zoning & EntitlementWater RightsCommunity Opposition
October 9, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

A Meta Contractor Contaminated Cheyenne's Recycled Water This Summer. The City's Utility Just Signed Google Up for 22 More Years of Data Centers.

Cheyenne's water utility sat on a bacterial contamination traced to a Meta data center contractor for weeks before residents found out. In October, the same city's utility locked in Google's next campus through 2048, on Google's dime.

Power & UtilityFinancing & InvestmentWater Rights
October 2, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

New Mexico Rejected the Pipeline for Oracle's AI Data Center Twice. Oracle's Answer Was a Force Majeure Notice, Not a Backup Plan.

Project Jupiter was designed to skip the interconnection queue entirely by running on-site gas fuel cells instead of grid power. The gas still needs a pipeline New Mexico's land office has refused twice, a hearing officer just recused himself over bias claims, and on September 24th Oracle hedged its own lease rather than naming a new power plan.

Power & UtilityWater RightsZoning & Entitlement
October 1, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

Imperial Valley's $10 Billion Data Center Said It Wouldn't Touch the Colorado River. It's Suing Over 260 Million Gallons of It.

In December, the developer pledged to run its 330-megawatt AI complex on recycled wastewater. By June it was suing the Imperial Irrigation District for Colorado River water instead — and September brought the project a CEQA reversal and a power-curtailment policy that puts it last in line during a shortage.

Water RightsZoning & EntitlementPower & Utility
September 29, 2026 · Brendan Hogan

California Signed Seven Data Center Laws in One Day. The Price Tag Isn't Written Yet.

Newsom's September 21st signing is being called the most comprehensive data center law package in the country. Most of what it actually changes is who gets to write the numbers later, and when.

PolicyPower & UtilityWater Rights