Posted by Permian Water Deals and New Municipal Data-Center Rules
Covered window: November 5–November 11, 2026
Two Key Items Stand Out:
First, Big Capital appears to be making a long-term bet that the Permian Basin will remain the premier US oil & gas play, one of the premier GLOBAL oil & gas plays, and that water will continue to be a major challenge–and therefore a major moneymaking opportunity–there.
KKR and Diamondback agreed to take the 70 percent of Deep Blue they did not already own, which is Five Point exiting roughly 2,000 pipeline miles, 142 million barrels of storage and a fifteen-year dedication across twelve counties. Reuters puts the price near $2.1 billion. The parties disclosed nothing, so treat that as reporting rather than a company figure, but on that number it works out to roughly $600 per barrel per day of permitted capacity, which is not a distressed price. Read it beside Select Water’s Pilot close a week earlier and the pattern is plain enough: infrastructure funds are buying Permian water platforms at scale while the operators who built them take the exit.
Second, major Texas cities are taking a pragmatic approach to datacenters, at least insofar as water is concerned.
Large municipalities in areas with high datacenter developer interest are thus far not setting volumetric caps on water use. Rather, they are focused on shifting the curve through technology, water pricing, greater transparency, and preserving administrative guardrails. Fort Worth’s commission had every reason to recommend a cap and explicitly declined, and so did New Braunfels and SAWS. What all three reached for instead was closed-loop cooling plus disclosure. That is a technology mandate and a reporting mandate, which is to say a cost, not a prohibition — and a cost is exactly what a hyperscaler can underwrite. The fight is over who pays a fair share, not over whether the campuses get built.
For you water and datacenter nerds out there, here’s two deeper reads, one on transparency and one on water use.
#1–Gabriel Collins, “The Data Center Industry Needs Its Own FracFocus-Style Transparency Initiative,” The Sinews of Civilization, Substack, 2 July 2026. Data Centers Need a FracFocus-Style Transparency Tool
32–Gabriel Collins, “AI vs. Heavy Industry: How do Datacenter Electricity and Water Loads Actually Compare?,” The Sinews of Civilization, Substack, 13 May 2026. AI Datacenter Electricity and Water Loads vs. Heavy Industry
Now to the rest of the news from Texas’s water space over the past week…
1. Datacenters
Fort Worth commission demands closed-loop cooling and water-impact statements
Report delivered: November 10
The Data Center Infrastructure Commission’s final report carries nineteen recommendations, five of them on water: mandatory non-evaporative closed-loop technology, a facility-level water-impact statement before water service or an incentive is approved, utility review conditions protecting municipal reliability, case-by-case evaluation of reclaimed water, and end-use submetering with public release of aggregated data. Normalized to 100 acres in Fort Worth, closed-loop cooling runs 300,000 to 1 million gallons a month against 4 to 6 million for evaporative. The commission recommended no volumetric cap and no moratorium, and council took no action on the 156-page report; a separate moratorium process runs to a vote in February 2027.
Source: City of Fort Worth, November 10, 2026.
SAWS moves to price and refuse data-center recycled water
Reported: November 6
San Antonio Water System disclosed that data centers currently take about 0.1 percent of its potable water and 1.25 percent of its recycled supply, and projected that recycled share rising to 12 percent. It has roughly 10,000 acre-feet of recycled water available against about 3,000 acre-feet in pending requests. Planned steps include a new fee on high-volume purple-pipe customers from 2027, an interim fee by agreement on new recycled connections, and a service-regulation change clarifying that SAWS can deny large recycled-water requests. The fees and the denial rule still require board and council approval.
GBC Insight Note: Large cities may actually fare better by keeping local datacenters on their water system. Doing so enables them to (1) charge impact fees that help offset capital costs across the system, (2) provide recycled wastewater in lieu of developers tapping new groundwater supplies, and (3) better ensure resilience at the watershed level by maintaining a position where they can work with and steer datacenter-driven water use, rather than pushing it into other areas that are less well-equipped to manage it and which may end up in hydrological competition with the city.
Source: San Antonio Express-News via GovTech, November 6, 2026.
SpaceX plans $24 billion complex on land traded for water money
Reported: November 10
SpaceX plans a gas-fired power plant and super-compute facility on 444.45 acres near the Port of Brownsville that the city de-annexed earlier this year at the company’s request, in exchange for up to $220 million toward municipal water and wastewater projects. Starbase has since annexed the land, placing it outside Brownsville’s jurisdiction and outside the moratorium that took effect days later. No water source, aquifer, utility, cooling method or volume has been disclosed for the site, and the gas plant could run it off-grid. The water dimension here is the land-for-water-money trade, not a disclosed supply arrangement.
Source: The Texas Tribune, November 10, 2026.
New Braunfels council passes data-center zoning on first reading
Vote: November 9
Council approved first reading and materially tightened the planning-commission draft: minimum lot size rises to 100 acres from 50, buildings are capped at one story and 15 feet, and heavy-industrial zoning alone no longer suffices — a Type 2 special use permit with public hearings is now required, alongside utility zero-impact letters, a baseline noise study and aquifer and flood conditions. The vote count was not reported, and it is not confirmed which of the draft’s specific cooling and recharge-zone clauses survived into the approved text. Second reading is set for November 16.
Source: Comal News, November 9, 2026.
Brownsville’s data-center moratorium takes effect citywide
Adopted November 4; effective November 5
The 90-day pause on data-center applications covers the city and its extraterritorial jurisdiction, following unanimous first reading at a special meeting in October and final reading on November 4. It can be extended once by a further 90 days through a hearing on January 19 and a second reading on February 2, which would run the review to May 18, 2027. It does not reach the de-annexed SpaceX tract, which is now within Starbase. This is the first Texas municipal data-center pause actually in force.
Source: The Rider, UTRGV, November 9, 2026.
Agriculture commissioner-elect promises day-one data-center water studies
Reported: November 10
Clayton Tucker, the first Democrat elected to the office in 36 years, said he will begin independent scientific research into hyperscale data centers’ water and energy use and potential pollution on his first day, and will publish the results, noting they could differ from the governor’s data-center audit. He named no implementing agency and no budget, and his direct water reference concerns pollution rather than consumption.
Source: High Plains Public Radio, November 10, 2026.
2. Other Consumers
Texas drought coverage falls to 60.8 percent
Valid November 3; released November 5
The Drought Monitor put Texas at 60.83 percent in D1 through D4, down 6.7 points from 67.55 percent a week earlier and the fifth consecutive week of contraction. The category split is D1 28.5, D2 25.3, D3 6.1 and D4 0.9, with D0 at 23.5. Improvement in the Panhandle, Central and West Texas outpaced degradation in East Texas, so the relief is real but geographically lopsided. Statewide reservoir storage is effectively flat at roughly 72 percent, about eight points below normal for the date — the rain has refilled headlines faster than supply.
Source: U.S. Drought Monitor, November 5, 2026.
Lake Amistad rebounds past 50 percent while Falcon lags near 20
Reported: November 10
Inflows from the Pecos and Devils rivers lifted Amistad from about 30 percent to over 50, while Falcon remains near 20 percent. Expected El Niño rains went to the desert Southwest rather than the Rio Grande watershed. Valley citrus did not size up after near-zero rain from June to August: fresh-market shipments through October 24 were 80,445 forty-pound cartons against 219,613 a year earlier. The reservoir levels are described as approximate by Valley specialists rather than taken from gauge readings.
Source: Texas A&M AgriLife Today, November 10, 2026.
Cotton harvest reaches 65 percent as wheat condition improves
Week ending November 8; released November 9
Texas cotton was 65 percent harvested against 61 the prior week and a 55 percent five-year average, running ten points ahead of normal — consistent with a drought-shortened crop. Winter wheat was 82 percent planted and 71 percent emerged, both ahead of average. Winter wheat rated poor or very poor fell to 25 percent from the 34 percent reported for the week ending November 1, a nine-point improvement.
Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, November 9, 2026.
Mexico has credited 3,159 of 865,139 acre-feet owed
Page updated: November 6; figures as of October 24
The International Boundary and Water Commission shows a shortfall of 865,139 acre-feet carried over from the 2020–2025 cycle, repayable by October 24, 2030, against which 3,159 acre-feet have been credited — 0.4 percent in year one. The current five-year cycle, which began October 25, 2025, separately requires 1,750,000 acre-feet, averaging 350,000 a year. The in-window date reflects the page update rather than a dated announcement.
Source: International Boundary and Water Commission, November 6, 2026.
Vernon imposes Stage 3 restrictions to protect the Seymour Aquifer
Reported: November 10
The city is targeting a 25 percent reduction in water use. Odd addresses water Monday and Wednesday, even addresses Tuesday and Thursday, with irrigation confined to 8 p.m. to 10 a.m. and fines of $500. Charity car washes, ornamental fountains, and washing of homes, buildings and industrial equipment are prohibited, pool filling is restricted to designated days, and hydrant meters require the city manager’s approval. The source does not give the date Stage 3 took effect, so the city is reported here as being under Stage 3 rather than having entered it this week.
Source: KAUZ NewsChannel 6, November 10, 2026.
Valley irrigation districts eye $164 million for canal losses
Reported: November 6
About a dozen Rio Grande Valley irrigation districts are organizing around state water-resiliency funding. The general manager of Hidalgo County Irrigation District No. 6 says century-old canals lose 25 to 50 percent of water pumped from the Rio Grande to evaporation and seepage, and that a 50 percent loss makes a district unsustainable in the long run. The $164 million figure comes from the article’s headline and metadata; the body was truncated, and this is follow-on coverage of a proposal first reported in August.
Source: RGV Business Journal, November 6, 2026.
3. Deals
Diamondback and KKR to buy Five Point’s Deep Blue stake
Announced: November 10
Diamondback Energy and KKR agreed to acquire the 70 percent of Deep Blue Midland Basin held by Five Point, giving the two joint ownership of the whole network; Diamondback already held 30 percent. The parties did not disclose a price, and the figure of roughly $2.1 billion is Reuters reporting rather than a company statement. Deep Blue has more than 2,000 miles of pipeline, nearly 5 million barrels a day of permitted produced-water capacity, 142 million barrels of storage, and a 15-year Diamondback dedication for produced and supply water within a 12-county area of mutual interest in the Midland Basin. Closing is expected in the fourth quarter subject to regulatory approval.
Source: Oil & Gas Journal, November 10, 2026.
Western Midstream confirms its $98 million water deal closed
Earnings call: November 5
The chief financial officer confirmed on the third-quarter call that the produced-water acquisition disclosed in the Form 10-Q has closed, and located the asset for the first time: a small privately held gathering and disposal company already interconnected with Western Midstream at two points, creating a continuous network in Eddy County. The target is still unnamed. One correction to Issue #2, which reported the 10-Q disclosure without a location: Eddy County is in New Mexico, so the acquired system sits on the New Mexico side of the Delaware Basin rather than in Texas.
Source: Western Midstream, third-quarter 2026 earnings call, November 5, 2026.
Water Development Board posts $78.6 million in proposed awards
Agenda posted for a November 12 meeting
The Texas Water Development Board on Nov. 12 approved $73,800,905 in financial assistance, according to the agency. That includes $34,000,000 in Clean Water State Revolving Fund financing to Marble Falls for wastewater construction and a $30,315,905 emerging-contaminants grant to Weatherford for PFAS treatment. It also includes a $3,235,000 Flood Infrastructure Fund loan to Austin for flood mitigation and $3,000,000 to San Angelo for a lead service line inventory. Smaller amounts went to Harris County Fresh Water Supply District No. 1A ($1,500,000), Plainview ($1,000,000) and Christian Life Center ($750,000). The agenda also listed up to $4,752,500 for San Marcos watershed flood planning; that item does not appear in the agency’s announcement.
Source: Texas Water Development Board board agenda, November 12, 2026.
Resilient Energy closes 51 percent of Mid River Midstream
Closed: November 11
The company closed on a majority interest in Mid River Midstream, adding about $25 million of infrastructure assets to its consolidated balance sheet and twelve Texas saltwater disposal wells across the Permian and Eagle Ford. The seller is not named and the counties are not specified; the $25 million is described as assets added rather than a stated purchase price, and the source is a single aggregator reproduction of a micro-cap release.
Source: Resilient Energy, November 11, 2026.
4. Infrastructure
Ferrovial’s Webber wins $538 million Fort Worth reclamation plant
Announced: November 5
Webber will build the greenfield Mary’s Creek Water Reclamation Facility in western Fort Worth under a $537.9 million contract, which Ferrovial describes as its largest US water project. The plant is designed with advanced nutrient removal and membrane bioreactor technology, with scope covering equalization and peak-flow storage, screening and grit removal, bioreactors, solids handling, odor control and controls, and will supply reclaimed water for future industrial and irrigation use. An initial 10 MGD expands to 15 MGD, with longer-term expansion to 25 MGD average day. Construction starts this month for completion in summer 2030. The delivery model is not stated by either the company or the city.
Source: Ferrovial, November 5, 2026.
TCEQ hears opposition to EPCOR’s Bayshore desalination permit
Public meeting: November 10
The meeting in Texas City covered new TPDES permit WQ0005502000 for EPCOR’s Bayshore Desalination Facility near Bacliff in Galveston County, which would authorise 59.93 MGD of discharge through Outfall 001 to the HL&P Canal and thence Upper Galveston Bay — a segment designated for oyster waters and high aquatic life use. That figure is the permitted discharge of treatment waste and raw water, not the plant’s production capacity. The application has been pending since October 3, 2025. Residents raised pollution, wildlife and the prospect of selling water to data centers; the fullest account of the meeting is paywalled, so attendance and speaker counts are unverified.
Source: TCEQ Office of the Chief Clerk, November 10, 2026.
Lewisville contractor strike spills more than 100,000 gallons
Incident: November 5
A contractor on a city project struck a wastewater pipeline in the 700 block of East Valley Ridge Boulevard around 11:30 a.m. Wastewater breached the work site about 4:30 p.m. and ran roughly five minutes into Prairie Creek, toward the Elm Fork of the Trinity, before an improvised berm contained it. The city notified TCEQ, advised avoiding contact, and told owners of private wells within half a mile to use distilled or boiled water. Drinking water was not affected and the final volume estimate is still being calculated.
Source: Cross Timbers Gazette, November 6, 2026.
Heavy rain collapses a 24-inch San Antonio sewer main
Incident: November 10
A SAWS 24-inch concrete sewer main collapsed in the 5900 block of Bicentennial Drive on the north-west side near Interstate 10, which the utility attributed to recent heavy rainfall overwhelming the line. SAWS said the spill exceeded the threshold requiring mandatory public notice but released no gallon figure and did not state the receiving water.
Source: KSAT 12, November 11, 2026.
Brenham boil-water notice narrows to three neighborhoods
Issued November 7; narrowed November 8
An evening water main leak dropped pressure citywide and prompted a boil-water notice for all Brenham customers. Service was restored and the notice was reduced at 4:12 p.m. the following day to parts of Liberty Village, Vintage Farms and Woodbridge, where it remained in effect until further notice. No customer count, main size or break location was released.
Source: KBTX 3, November 8, 2026.
GBC insight note: three failures in seven days, and two of them had nothing to do with pipe age. A contractor strike and a rain-driven collapse are not deferred-renewal problems, which matters because deferred renewal is the frame Texas utilities use when they go to ratepayers for a rate increase. Replacement spending fixes the Brenham kind of failure. It does not fix a backhoe, and it does not fix a 24-inch main that goes because the rainfall return interval moved underneath it. Neither SAWS nor Lewisville had released a final volume by the close of the week. My reading is that both move up.
5. Legislation
Zaffirini’s SB 35 leads a six-bill data-center package
Filed: November 9
Senator Judith Zaffirini has taken SB 32 through SB 36 for data centers. SB 35 would require large data centers to report water use to the Water Development Board; SB 32 would add a Public Utility Commission permit before construction of computing sites at or above 75 megawatts; SB 33 addresses electric infrastructure cost allocation, SB 34 county authority over data-center development, and SB 36 would bar local tax abatements and rebates. More than 1,260 bills were filed by 5 p.m. on the first day of filing for the 90th Legislature.
Source: The Texas Tribune, November 9, 2026.
Senate tax-break repeal draws 23 of 31 senators
Filed: November 9
SB 293, by Senator Joan Huffman, would repeal the data-center sales and use tax exemption and has drawn 23 of the Senate’s 31 members. HB 167, by Representative Trey Martinez Fischer, is the House companion, and HB 408, HB 681 and HB 750 also target the exemption. The water nexus is indirect — this is tax policy — but it is included because data-center water use is the driver of the backlash, and tax leverage is the likeliest vehicle for attaching water conditions.
Source: The National Law Review, November 9, 2026.
HB 529 would mandate data-center water reporting
Reported: November 10
The bill, by Representative Salman Bhojani, would cover facilities or integrated campuses with actual or projected demand at or above 75 megawatts or 300,000 gallons of water in any consecutive 30-day period. It would require water resource impact assessments, conservation plans, annual reports breaking out sources, consumption, returns and reuse, a public facility registry, notice to affected local governments and water providers, and public hearing procedures. The bill number and author rest on a single outlet; no bill-tracking page was reachable to confirm the filing date independently.
Source: FOX 26 Houston, November 10, 2026.
Houston lawmakers target private water utility rate rules
Reported: November 8
Representatives Tom Oliverson, Gary Gates and Cody Harris plan 90th-session legislation on temporary rate increases, infrastructure cost recovery and wastewater billing by private water utilities, following complaints about Aqua Texas bills that this newsletter reported in Issue #1. Oliverson cites bills exceeding $1,000 a month. No bill numbers have been announced.
Source: KPRC 2, November 8, 2026.
A single voter backed $8.28 billion in Denton County bonds
Election November 3; first reported November 4
Denton County Municipal Utility District No. 7’s four-part package passed on one ballot, The Bond Buyer reported, citing unofficial county results. The package is $3.32 billion of new bonds plus $4.97 billion of refunding authority. It repeats a package that passed with one vote in May and was voided after the district removed 100 acres. Cole Ranch Improvement District No. 2 split the same night. Its $1.379 billion water, sewer and drainage proposition passed. Its $1.525 billion road proposition tied, so it fails if the canvass confirms the tie; both propositions include refunding authority. Texas voters weighed about $65.8 billion of general obligation bonds on Nov. 3, the most of any state, and $56.6 billion of that was for utility and other special districts. Results are unofficial until the districts canvass them.
Source: The Bond Buyer, November 4, 2026.
6. Litigation
Camp Mystic sued hours after the bankruptcy stay lifts
Filed: November 9
Clarke and Katherine Baker filed a wrongful-death, survival and exemplary-damages suit in Travis County district court over the death of their eight-year-old daughter in the July 2025 flood, naming Camp Mystic LLC, Natural Fountains Properties and Eastland family operators, with a jury demand. It is the sixth wrongful-death case and was filed the day the automatic stay lifted under an order signed in October. No dollar figure appears in the pleading as reported; the cause number has not been disclosed. Only this one new suit is verifiable inside the window.
Source: KSAT 12, November 9, 2026.
Judge refuses to narrow Camp Mystic search warrants
Hearing: November 10
Judge Sid Harle declined, at this stage, to limit search warrants under which the Texas Rangers sought Apple records — browser histories, call logs, emails, GPS, photographs and video — for fourteen accounts, seven belonging to Eastland family members including the late director. The warrants were executed in September. The material goes to a special master for an initial privilege review, with a further hearing possible. The ruling was announced from the bench and no signed written order is confirmed; nothing was decided about guilt or charges.
Source: KSAT 12, November 10, 2026.
Twelfth Court rejects the Trinity Cutoff navigability appeal
Opinion November 4; reported November 5–6
The panel affirmed against Save the Cutoff on both standing and failure to prove navigability in fact, in the appeal from Henderson County district court against Phillip Surls and Iron River Ranch II. The Texas attorney general’s amicus supporting navigability, reported in Issue #1, did not carry. Organisers say they will petition the Texas Supreme Court, and no petition had been filed by the close of the window. The opinion issued one day before this window opens and is carried because it resolves a matter this newsletter has followed; the official docket blocks automated access, so no cause number is confirmed.
Source: KLTV, November 6, 2026.
7. Regulation
TCEQ adopts produced-water irrigation rules, effective November 26
Approved November 4; submitted to the Texas Register November 6
The commission approved Rule Project 2026-006-309-OW, amending Chapter 309 to set minimum requirements for disposing of treated produced water by irrigation and Chapter 210 to add produced water regulated under 40 CFR Parts 435 and 437 to the process wastewater eligible for reuse authorization. It implements Senate Bill 1145, moving land-application permitting from the Railroad Commission to TCEQ for applications filed on or after September 1, 2025, and expressly does not authorise discharge of pollutants into water in the state. Issue #2 could report only that this had reached the adoption agenda; the approval and the November 26 effective date close that thread. The vote itself falls one day before this window, though the public record of it does not.
Source: TCEQ adopted rules, November 2026.
NGL accepts a draft permit to discharge treated produced water
Accepted: November 10
NGL Water Solutions Permian has accepted the terms of TCEQ draft TPDES permit WQ0005445000 for its Red Bluff SWD Facility in Reeves County. NGL says discharge would be phased from a daily average of 650,000 gallons through 2 million and 10 million to 16.9 million gallons a day, about 400,000 barrels a day. The company frames this as new supply for irrigation, farming, and cooling at data centers, power plants and other industrial users. This is a surface-discharge authorisation rather than land application, so it advances the other of the two produced-water pathways. It remains a draft, not yet public, and now proceeds to public notice and comment. TCEQ’s December 2023 notice of the application matches the 16.9 million gallon cap but described a pipe directly into Red Bluff Reservoir; the release names Salt Creek and the Upper Pecos River below the reservoir.
Source: NGL Energy Partners, November 10, 2026.
GBC Insight Note: Treating produced water for use outside the oilfield is likely a significantly bigger challenge than the limited public narrative thus far would indicate.
First, there is the physical challenge of extracting freshwater from a brine stream that in many cases be several times more saline than seawater. Industrial scale yields on the order of 20-25% would be a reasonable expectation. This means treatment will not “solve” the Permian Basin’s water problems. Instead, it will simply shrink the disposal volumes.
Second, there needs to be substantial and ongoing transparency about what is in the water stream at both plant inlet and plant outlet so that regulators and the public can see what may be going back into the water cycle. Oilfield water can contain BTXs, PFAS, and other contaminants of concern so ongoing and regular transparency about water quality will be critical.
Finally, the Pecos River is part of an international river system, the Rio Grande, that the US shares with Mexico. If companies in Mexico were to begin taking highly impaired water, treating it, and discharging it into the Rio Conchos (the major tributary on their side of the border), how would we react? What level of data sharing and transparency would we ask of them? Those are important thing to think about as we move forward.
Houston County district creation recommended with five directors
Scheduled consideration: November 4
The filing asks commissioners to certify the landowner petition, appoint five temporary directors and order a confirmation election for a district with boundaries coterminous with Houston County, wholly within Groundwater Management Area 11 and covering the Carrizo-Wilcox, Yegua-Jackson, Sparta and Queen City aquifers. The proposed maintenance tax is $0.019 per $100 of valuation against a statutory cap of $0.50, and a confirmation election must be ordered within 120 days of the temporary directors qualifying. TCEQ has still posted no marked agenda or minutes for November 4, so this remains scheduled rather than decided.
Source: TCEQ Office of the Chief Clerk, docket 2026-1226-MIS.
Railroad Commission restores public comment at monthly meetings
Reported: November 11
Commissioners will reinstate general public comment from the December meeting, reversing the August policy this newsletter reported in its August edition. The reported backlash concerned groundwater protection, carbon-storage permitting and well plugging rather than produced water or disposal wells, and Office of Public Engagement listening sessions continue alongside the restored comment period. The item rests on a single outlet; no commission order, minutes or release confirming it has been located.
Source: KSST Radio, November 11, 2026.
8. Technology
Orla desalination unit begins testing on synthetic brine
Earnings call: November 5
Texas Pacific Land said it is inletting increasing concentrations of synthetically produced brine at its 10,000 barrel-a-day Orla test facility as it calibrates equipment and establishes a data-collection framework, with an adjacent grassland rehabilitation plot complete and a final draft discharge permit expected shortly. The company hopes to flow field-produced water into the plant by year end. Issue #2 excluded this facility because its construction and commissioning were disclosed on August 5; this is the first word that brine is actually moving through it. No performance figures have been published — no recovery rate, no salt rejection, no achieved throughput — and scale-up timing is explicitly contingent on talks with upstream operators and hyperscalers.
Source: Texas Pacific Land, third-quarter 2026 earnings call, November 5, 2026.
GBC Insight Note: The use of synthetic brine, as opposed to the highly complex, highly variable, and often, highly impaired brines that actually come from oil & gas wells illustrates the core challenges I laid out in the insight note a few paragraphs above this one.
Western Midstream targets its first reuse plant within six months
Earnings call: November 5
The chief financial officer said the company is in talks with a few producers about a first commercial beneficial-reuse plant and that six months is the goal, with other coverage putting it at six to twelve. Nothing is included in the 2027 capital budget for it, the first plant will be smaller before scaling, and EBITDA contribution is still a few years out. This is forward-looking intent rather than a deployment, and the location was not stated — the company’s Delaware system spans Texas and New Mexico, so a Texas siting is unconfirmed.
Source: Western Midstream, third-quarter 2026 earnings call, November 5, 2026.
Brownsville smart meters now alert customers to leaks
Program live November 1; reported November 5
Brownsville Public Utilities Board’s Continuous Water Consumption Notification Program texts or emails customers when an advanced metering infrastructure meter logs 24 consecutive hours of continuous use, using existing meters rather than new hardware. The item rests on a single trade report with no utility release located, and gives no meter count, customer count or water-savings figure.
Source: RGV Business Journal, November 5, 2026.
How I created this update
I ran a deep AI scrape across the eight sectors, each searched independently under a capped budget, followed by manual review in which every cited source was retrieved and read before an item was accepted.
Roughly 120 candidate items were set aside, the large majority for falling outside the covered window and a smaller number because the source did not support the claim. Items drawn from meeting agendas are labeled as scheduled rather than decided.
Three items — the TCEQ rule adoption, the Trinity Cutoff opinion and the Denton County bond result — fall just outside the window and are carried because no previous issue reported them; each says so in its status line. Election results are unofficial pending canvass. Figures attributed to advocacy groups, to company targets or to models are identified as such. The method may change.
I wrote all the GBC Insight Notes contained in this update.
Suggested Citation: Gabriel Collins, “Texas Water Intelligence Weekly,” Issue #3, 12 November 2026