Lawmakers crafting policies to protect the state’s water supply called the response rate to both surveys “pathetic” and “woefully inadequate.”

Data center operators largely ignored requests by state agencies to report their water use, angering lawmakers who said they need the information to craft policies to protect the state’s water supply.

Only 17% of the 341 data centers operating in Texas responded to a survey from the Texas Water Development Board last year, the agency’s water supply planning director told lawmakers at a committee hearing on Tuesday.

Temple McKinnon said the companies were required by law to respond, but the state agency lacks enforcement power to compel them to do so. That could be taken up by the attorney general’s office, said state Rep. Cody Harris, a Palestine Republican who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee.