Supply
Reclaimed effluent, treated produced water, brackish and fresh groundwater, surface rights. Primary and backup.
Buyer-side water advisor for data centers · Texas
Lock in the water before it stalls your campus.
We bring the Texas water midstream market to your site, and we work only for you. We source, negotiate and contract water for hyperscalers and data center developers. We lead with recycled water, municipal reclaimed effluent and treated produced water, so your site runs on supply the community isn't drinking. One accountable lead, from first source to final discharge.
Why now
Water is the next permit you can't buy your way past.
Power gets the headlines. Water is where Texas projects now get slowed down: by city councils, by the Legislature, and by neighbors.
3–9%
Share of total Texas water use data centers could reach by 2040, up from under 1% today.
UT Austin, Bureau of Economic Geology, 2026747
Data centers announced in Texas, on top of 217 operating and 162 under construction.
Aterio data, via The Hill, 2026161B
Gallons per year Texas data center cooling could need by 2030, versus roughly 25 billion today.
Houston Advanced Research Center2026
The Governor called for water-efficient technology requirements and water use reporting. Cities like San Angelo now cap data center cooling water and exempt reclaimed supply.
Office of the Governor; San Angelo Ord. 2026-078The projects that get built fastest will be the ones that walk into the council meeting with a signed non-potable supply already in hand.
Who we work for
We sit on your side of the table. Only yours.
Our client is the data center owner or developer. We know how water midstream companies price, structure and negotiate because we ran commercial for one. Now that knowledge works for the buyer.
Our clients
- Hyperscalers building their own campuses
- Powered-land and colocation developers
- Investors underwriting a site's water risk
We take no fees, commissions or referral payments from water suppliers. Our only paycheck comes from you.
Who we negotiate with
- Cities and utilities with treated effluent to sell
- Water midstream operators and produced water treaters
- Groundwater and surface water rights holders
- Pipeline, treatment and EPC providers
Full water scope
Every water problem on the site. One call.
Data center water isn't one contract. It's supply, treatment, transport, storage, discharge and permits, each with its own counterparty. We run all of it for you so nothing falls between vendors.
Source
Treat
Treatment
Treatment to your cooling spec, at the source or on site, with the right provider and the right contract model: own, lease or buy water as a service.
Move & store
Infrastructure
Pipeline, right-of-way, pumping and storage ponds or tanks sized for outages and peak summer load.
Recycle
Blowdown & discharge
A plan and a contract for cooling tower blowdown: reuse, treatment, sale or disposal.
Permit
Regulatory path
The approvals each source needs, from state reuse authorizations to local ordinances, sequenced against your build.
Community
Local support
Deals that leave the city better off: new revenue for its treatment plant, infrastructure it keeps, drinking water it doesn't lose.
We leadStrategy, sourcing, negotiation, contracts, schedule and every counterparty relationship.
Our partners buildVetted engineering, treatment, pipeline and legal firms, contracted to you and managed by us.
How we work
From project review to running water.
One accountable commercial lead from the first project review through the life of the site. You approve the plan before procurement starts.
STA 0+00Weeks 1–4
Review the project
We review your project with your team: cooling design, water demand and ramp, site constraints and schedule. From there we begin building a plan for how water gets to your site, looking at sources such as municipal reclaimed effluent, treated produced water and groundwater.
You get: a water plan with supply options, presented for your approval.
STA 1+00After your approval
Run procurement
Once you approve the plan, we begin procurement. We open doors with the people who control the water: city managers, utility boards, midstream operators and rights holders. Where the market allows, we run a competitive process so you can compare offers instead of taking a single quote.
You get: supplier proposals to evaluate, with our recommendation.
STA 2+00Supplier selected
Negotiate the contract
We lead the commercial negotiation and work alongside your counsel to a water supply agreement your lenders and your operations team can both live with.
You get: an executed agreement with firm volumes, price and quality.
STA 3+00Through COD
Deliver first water
We line up the pipeline, right-of-way, treatment and backup supply, and keep every party on schedule until water reaches the plant. We also structure the community side, so the city gains revenue and infrastructure instead of losing drinking water.
You get: water on site when the servers arrive.
STA 4+00Ongoing operations
Manage the contract
A water agreement only works if someone holds the supplier to it. We track deliveries against contracted volumes and quality spec, check invoices and price escalators, manage curtailment events and disputes, and support your water use reporting. As you add capacity, we negotiate expansions and renewals before they become urgent.
You get: a regular performance report and one person accountable for your water supply for the life of the site.
How we charge
Hire us one stage at a time.
Each stage on the route above is its own engagement with its own fee. Start with the four-week review. You decide whether to continue to procurement, and whether to keep us on after first water.
Fixed fee
Project review & water plan
A four-week review of your project and a plan with water supply options, presented for your approval before procurement begins.
Retainer + success fee
Procurement & contracting
We run a competitive process across suppliers through to an executed supply agreement. Most of our pay is tied to the signed contract, and all of it comes from you.
Monthly retainer
Water contract management
After first water, we manage supplier performance, quality, invoices, curtailments, renewals and expansions for the life of the site.
Monthly
Interim commercial lead
Senior commercial leadership for data center developers or energy companies while you hire or reset your own team.
Commercial terms
The price is one line. We negotiate the whole sheet.
Bad water deals rarely fail on price. They fail on curtailment, quality and who owns the pipe. These are the terms we fight for on every agreement.
Same water, three vocabularies
Cities quote in million gallons a day, the oilfield in barrels, rights holders in acre-feet. We work all three sides.
- Volume & ramp
- Firm daily volume tied to your phased build, with rights to step up as halls come online.
- Firmness
- Curtailment priority in drought stages, so cooling water isn't the first thing cut.
- Quality spec
- TDS, chlorides, silica and hardness limits matched to your cooling design, with remedies when a delivery misses spec.
- Price & escalator
- Base rate, index or fixed escalator, and caps that keep long-term cost predictable.
- Take-or-pay
- Minimum commitments sized to what you will actually use, not what the seller hopes to sell.
- Term & renewals
- Tenor that matches your lease and financing, with extension options on your side.
- Delivery point
- Who builds, owns and maintains the pipe and treatment, and who carries that capital.
- Backup supply
- Secondary source and interconnect for outages at the primary plant.
- Blowdown
- Where cooling tower discharge goes and who pays to handle it.
Beyond data centers
Commercial horsepower for energy companies.
Outside of water, we build revenue for energy businesses. We've run commercial organizations from the drilling rig to the pipeline and know how buyers in each part of the business decide.
Offshore drillingOilfield servicesEquipment & manufacturingMidstreamPower & data centers
Business development
Target accounts, open doors at the operator and executive level, and build a pipeline that closes, not one that just looks full.
Contracts & negotiation
Master service agreements, long-term supply and offtake deals, acreage dedications, take-or-pay and pricing structures that protect margin through the cycle.
Pricing & bid strategy
Win-rate and margin analysis, tender strategy and price positioning for large competitive awards.
New market entry
Moving an energy services or equipment company into a new basin or customer segment: who buys, how they buy, and what it takes to win the first award.
Interim commercial leadership
A former CEO and public-company CCO who can run your commercial team, lead a sales reset or prepare the business for a sale.
Principal
Nick Patterson
Nick has spent more than 20 years selling and contracting in energy, most recently as Chief Commercial Officer of Aris Water Solutions (NYSE: ARIS), one of the largest produced water recycling and infrastructure companies in the Permian. He led its commercial organization through the company's roughly $2 billion acquisition by Western Midstream.
Before Aris, he was CEO of Delmar Systems, where he took the business from negative EBITDA to $44 million. He began his career in commercial and business development roles across offshore drilling at Transocean, Diamond Offshore and Atwood Oceanics.
He knows how water midstream companies price, what they will give on, and what they won't. Terroir puts that knowledge to work for data center owners and developers, and only for them.
Army veteran. Rice University MBA. Chairman of the Energy Education Foundation.
20+ yrsEnergy commercial leadership: drilling, oilfield services, water midstream
~$2BAris Water Solutions sale to Western Midstream, as CCO
$44MEBITDA at Delmar Systems, from negative $3M, as CEO
Seller's viewRan the seller's side of water deals at Aris. Now negotiates for the buyer.
Contact
Send us a site. We'll tell you where the water is.
A county, a coordinate or a rough load is enough to start. First call is free.