Originally published October 29, 2026. The reporting distinguishes allegations and estimates from verified findings.
HOOD COUNTY EXPRESS | THE DATA CENTER DOCKET
Shadden letter seeks review of Wolf Hollow water reporting
October 29th, 2026AD
By Roger Teague, Staff Writer
Following the data center fight in Hood County — permits, water, power and who decides.
GRANBURY — Cheryl Shadden, founder of Protect Hood County, is asking the Texas Attorney General's office to look into water reporting tied to the MARA bitcoin site beside Constellation's Wolf Hollow II power plant, according to an 11-page letter dated Oct. 28 and addressed to the office's Environmental Protection Division.
HCE has reviewed the letter. HCE has not confirmed that the Attorney General's office received it. The letter asks for an investigation and, if violations are found, enforcement. It does not report a finding, and nothing in it shows that MARA or any other company broke a reporting rule.
Disclosure: Shadden is among the plaintiffs who have sued MARA in federal court over noise at the Granbury site, as HCE has reported.
WHAT SHE WANTS CHECKED
The letter responds to an Oct. 13 Attorney General demand letter addressed to Generate Capital–Wolf Hollow, which Shadden's letter says concerns a Texas Water Development Board Water Use Survey that was due March 1, 2026. HCE has not confirmed that Oct. 13 letter with the Attorney General's office.
Shadden asks the state to determine which company was responsible for reporting water use at the site from 2023 on, whether MARA met its own reporting duties, and who supplies MARA's water. She writes that she believes MARA gets water through Constellation or a Wolf Hollow entity, and she asks the state to verify that. HCE found no public record of MARA's water supplier or its actual water use.
She also asks the state to preserve records and not to treat a late survey filing as the end of the matter, and she requests a written response. Those are her requests, not findings.
On Oct. 15, the Attorney General's office announced letters to 156 data center developments in 32 counties, including Hood. The release did not name companies. HCE covered it Oct. 16.
AN ESTIMATE WITH LIMITS
Shadden's letter offers a proportional estimate of the water tied to generating MARA's electricity: 207,000 gallons a day, about 75.6 million a year. She takes MARA's roughly 300 megawatts, divides by about 1,200 megawatts for the power plant, and applies that 25 percent to 828,000 gallons a day, which she calls a permitted withdrawal. She says the result is not MARA's direct water use and asks the state to replace it with actual records.
The inputs are not measured use:
The 828,000 figure comes from a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) notice on Wolf Hollow II's wastewater permit renewal. The notice describes it as the daily-average flow limit for discharging treated wastewater and stormwater to the Brazos River. It is not a withdrawal figure. The application's own summary gives a daily average flow limit of 1.24 million gallons a day. HCE has not confirmed which figure applies, or the permit's current status. TCEQ received the application Jan. 16, 2026; the permit's listed expiration was July 19, 2026.
About 300 megawatts is MARA's Granbury capacity, per its annual report. It is not a measure of power or water used.
Constellation lists Wolf Hollow II at 1,115 megawatts. Shadden's letter uses about 1,200.
The same TCEQ summary says the plant uses dry fin fan coolers rather than a wet cooling tower. HCE has not determined how that affects the plant's water use or any share tied to MARA.
THE OWNERSHIP TIMELINE
Shadden's letter says MARA took over the site in late fall 2023. MARA's filings give a different timeline. Its annual report and a Feb. 1, 2024 press release put MARA's acquisition of the Granbury site in January 2024, with Hut 8 continuing as operator. MARA said then that it intended to replace Hut 8 as operator by April 30, 2024, so operational control passed in spring 2024 at the earliest.
Which company was responsible for which reporting period is a question for the state.
PROJECTS RED AND YELLOW
Shadden's letter says representatives of Projects Red and Yellow told Commissioners Court that a deal to buy water from Constellation is covered by a nondisclosure agreement. HCE has not verified that statement against meeting video or minutes. Texas Scorecard reported that at the March 24 Commissioners Court meeting, a commissioner cited MARA's announced strategic agreement with Starwood, the developer of Projects Red and Yellow, and the projects' attorney said Starwood and MARA are separate companies and the existing bitcoin site has nothing to do with Starwood.
WHAT'S NEXT
This story will be updated.
