By Trey Wilson, Texas Real Estate and Water Lawyer · Published October 2026 The State’s utility regulator has sued the Attorney General to keep two pieces of information about Texas data centers out of public view: the county each facility is in, and the regional water planning area it draws from. The headlines say the…
By Trey Wilson, Texas Real Estate and Water Lawyer · Published October 2026 The land agent was polite. The letter says the company wants to be a good neighbor, there is a check attached to a signature line, and the deadline is two weeks out. Before you sign a data center neighbor agreement, you need…
The San Antonio Data Center Lawsuit Won’t Pay the Neighbors. Texas Nuisance Law Might. What the Vantage and VoltaGrid Clean Air Act Case Means for Texas Landowners Living Next to a Data Center Power Plant On September 21, 2026, two national environmental groups sued the companies behind two data center campuses on San Antonio’s far…
By Trey Wilson, Texas Real Estate and Water Lawyer · Published September 2026 The developer does not want to buy your land. It wants to lease it for 40 years, maybe 70 with extensions, and it has sent a letter of intent with a rent number that looks very good. Before you sign, understand what…
Water Diversion and Section 11.086 of the Texas Water Code: What Landowners Should Know The statute that decides who pays when a neighbor’s grading, driveway, or new construction sends water onto your land. The water was never a problem for twenty-five years. Then someone changed the land next door. A neighbor built a wall, poured…
Will a Data Center Next Door Lower My Property Value? A Texas Landowner’s Guide to Diminished Value, Stigma, the Proof That Actually Wins, and What Happens When You Sell You have watched the announcements, the rezoning notices, and the survey trucks, and now a data center is going up within sight of your land. The…
Will a Data Center Drain My Water Well? A Texas Landowner’s Guide to Groundwater Ownership, the Rule of Capture, and Where You Actually Have Leverage When a Data Center Comes for the Water Your well has produced clean water for as long as you have owned the place, maybe longer than anyone in the family…
What if Data Center Lights or Noise Are Driving Me Crazy? A Texas Landowner’s Guide to Private Nuisance, the Crosstex Standard, and When a Data Center’s Hum and Glare Cross the Line The data center went online, and now your nights are different. A low mechanical hum rolls off the cooling banks and never stops,…
What Happens When Data Center Construction Floods My Land? A Texas Landowner’s Resource Guide to Surface Water Diversion, Water Code Section 11.086, and Drainage Claims Against Data Center Developers A developer strips the vegetation off a hundred acres next to you, regrades the whole tract so it falls toward your fence line, pours concrete pads…
Texas Real Estate & Water Law Blog When Government Construction Cuts Off Access to Your Property: A New Texas Court Explains When It Becomes a Constitutional Taking A road-widening project barricaded the only usable route to a Collin County ranch. The Dallas Court of Appeals just reminded us that when the government closes off the…
Texas Data Centers and Water: Emerging Issues for Landowners and Water Users By Trey Wilson, San Antonio Real Estate Attorney and Texas Water Lawyer Texas is beginning to see a shift in how large-scale development is evaluated, particularly as it relates to data centers. These facilities have historically been viewed through the lens of economic…
Can You Stop a Dangerous Project Before It’s Built? A Texas Court Says Yes, If You Plead It Right By Trey Wilson, San Antonio Real Estate Attorney and Texas Water Lawyer One of the more important questions in land use and nuisance law is this: do you have to sit still and wait for the…
Texas Is Subsidizing Data Centers — But the Real Story Is in the Law, the Water, and the Risk There is a surface-level story making the rounds right now: Texas is handing out more than $1 billion per year in tax breaks to data centers. That part is true. But if you stop there, you miss…
Texas is experiencing a major surge of large-scale data center announcements. The public conversation usually fixates on one headline number: a massive “state filing” with a nine-figure construction budget. Here is the reality. That “state filing” is vague and frequently misunderstood. It is usually not a plat. It is not a zoning case. It is…
When Flood Control Floods Your Land: Why a Recent Federal Court Opinion Matters to Texas Landowners By Trey Wilson, San Antonio Real Estate Attorney and Texas Water Lawyer Landowners in Texas live with water in a way most Americans do not. Rivers, creeks, arroyos, reservoirs, and flood-control projects shape how land can be used, developed,…
Can a Texas HOA Restrict My Right to Harvest Rainwater or Maintain Rain Barrels? By Trey Wilson, Texas Real Estate and Water Lawyer Water conservation in Texas isn’t just smart policy—it’s backed by law. With drought cycles, population growth, and aquifer strain across the state, rainwater harvesting has become a protected activity. In fact, Section…
Who Owns the Rivers in Texas? Public Access and Private Property Rights By Trey Wilson, Real Estate Lawyer and Water Rights Attorney – San Antonio, Texas In Texas, questions about who owns a river—and who can legally walk, wade, or paddle through it—are more than theoretical. These issues surface regularly in disputes between private landowners,…
CURRENT LAW – THE LSIPA (2021) In 2021, the the Eighty-seventh Texas Legislature adopted the Lone Star Infrastructure Protection Act in order to prohibit “contracts or other agreements with certain foreign-owned companies in connection with critical infrastructure in this state.” The legislation that became the Act (SB 2116) was filed for the purpose of blocking…
The Texas Legislature has just begun its 89th Session, and proposed legislation has already been introduced to limit the ability of Texas property owners’ associations to impose fines for dried or browning vegetation during drought periods. House Bill 359 by Rep. Vikki Goodwin (D – Austin) proposes to add a new Section 202.008 to the…
One of the elements of a fraud claim is reliance upon a misrepresentation made by the Defendant. This means that a Plaintiff must not only prove that the Defendant knowingly made a false representation of material fact, but also demonstrate that the Plaintiff in some way reasonably relied upon a deceitful representation. But not all…
What is Limitations? “Limitations” refers to the period within which a Plaintiff must file a lawsuit. Failure to file suit within the applicable limitations period can render the suit time-barred. The existence of limitations periods is grounded in the notion that justice requires suits to be brought within a reasonable time so that witness memories…
WHAT IS A “NUISANCE” IN LEGAL TERMS? Under Texas law, a “nuisance” is a condition that substantially interferes with the use and enjoyment of land by causing unreasonable discomfort or annoyance to a person of ordinary sensibilities attempting to use and enjoy it. Crosstex North Texas Pipeline, L.P. v. Gardiner, 505 S.W.3d 580, 600–01 (Tex….
RAILROAD COMPANY’s DUTY TO WARN Railroad companies have a general legal duty “to give adequate warning of approaching trains, given whatever obstructions or other conditions exist.” Mo. Pac. R.R. Co. v. Limmer, 299 S.W.3d 78, 92 (Tex.2009). Because “every railroad crossing is tinged with danger,” railroads must provide at least one warning sign that is…