Childress Data Center, Childress, Texas

Childress, in Childress County, Texas, has been under a citywide boil water notice since September 8, 2026, while one of the largest data centers in the Panhandle runs on the edge of town. The data center is IREN's Childress campus: 750 megawatts on 576 acres, connected straight to the ERCOT grid through substations the company owns, which IREN calls its largest operational site. "We are having to buy bottled water. We can't use ice. We can't brush our teeth in the water," resident Jordan Farus said, adding: "Greenbelt is our water source, and it's been low for quite some time, even before the data centers got here."

The city blames extreme heat, high ground temperatures and drought for disinfectant levels falling too low, Mayor Cary Preston declared a local state of disaster on September 11, and the town is under Stage 4 water restrictions. Nothing has tied the boil notice to the data center, and the city's problem is structural: it buys all its water from the Greenbelt Municipal and Industrial Water Authority, which relies on a shrinking lake and ten wells, and City Manager Kevin Hodges said, "we don't treat the water. We only distribute the water."

The city is chasing up to $16 million from the state's drinking water fund for new wells and lines, though its contract with Greenbelt requires it to pay twice for any water it gets elsewhere. Another option involves a data center developer: City Manager Kevin Hodges said Lancium is willing to build about 16 miles of water line connecting its wells to Greenbelt's reservoir, so that water could be treated and blended into the system.