Sentence Correction

Somehow I remembered reading that present progressive tenses are almost wrong on GMAT. Please let me know if that is not the case.
I understand that this particular example is having another pronoun error also( data is later referred as "they")

Hi! Looks like your screen-print has only 4 options displayed; so it is slightly confusing.

Also, isn't "data" supposed to be "plural"? So, looks like the reference to "data" by using "they" is correct.

The data being collected in the current geological survey are providing a strong warning for engineers as they consider the new dam project, but their greatest importance might lie in how they influence the upcoming decision by those same engineers on whether to retrofit 75 bridges in the survey zone.

The data being collected in the current geological survey are providing a strong warning for engineers as they consider the new dam project, but their greatest importance

The data being collected in the current geological survey provide a strong warning for engineers as they consider the new dam project, but its greatest importance

The data collected in the current geological survey is providing a strong warning for engineers as they consider the new dam project, but their greatest importance

The data collected in the current geological survey provides a strong warning for engineers in consideration of the new dam project, but its greatest importance

The data collected in the current geological survey provide a strong warning for engineers in consideration for the new dam project, but the greatest importance

A: for engineers as they consider the new dam project, but their greatest importance
Here, they serves to refer to engineers, while their is intended to refer to data.
On the GMAT, forms of the same pronoun (they, them, their) cannot have different antecedents.
Eliminate A.

B: The data...provide...but its greatest importance
Here, provide (plural) implies that data is being treated as PLURAL, while its implies that data is being treated as SINGULAR.
The same noun cannot be treated as plural in one case but singular in another.
Eliminate B.

C: The data...is providing...but their greatest importance
Here, is providing (singular) implies that data is being treated as SINGULAR, while their implies that data is being treated as PLURAL.
The same noun cannot be treated as singular in one case but plural in another.
Eliminate C.

D: The data...provides...but...they influence...
Here, provides (singular) implies that data is being treated as SINGULAR, while their implies that data is being treated as PLURAL.
The same noun cannot be treated as singular in one case but plural in another.
Eliminate D.

E: engineers in consideration for the new dam project
Here, the implication is that certain engineers are being considered FOR the new dam project.
Not the intended meaning.
The intended meaning is that engineers are considering HOW TO COMPLETE the new dam project.
Eliminate E.

There is no correct answer here.
I would ignore this SC.

Please note the following
Outside the GMAT, data is often treated as a synonym for information.
In such cases, data will take a singular verb.
In fact, data + singular verb has become so common in conversational speech that most people now find data + plural verb a bit odd-sounding.
However, GMAC seems to favor treating data as a plural noun -- the PLURAL form of datum.
Examples of data in the OG12:

SC36, p. 40:
New DATA from United States Forest Service ecologists SHOW that for every dollar spent on controlled small- scale burning, forest thinning, and the training of fire-management personnel, seven dollars are saved that would have been spent on extinguishing big fires.

p. 115:
The degree to which numerical DATA ARE SPREAD OUT or dispersed can be measured in many ways.

PS81, p. 163:
DATA for a certain biology experiment ARE given in the table above.

p. 360:
They ruled out local bias because breakage DATA obtained from other Pleistocene sites WERE similar to the La Brea data.

p. 366:
These DATA HAVE ESTABLISHED a strong connection between variations in the Earth's orbit and the periodicity of the ice ages.

p. 501:
Presenting DATA that EXTEND further into the past than the journalist's data.

In every case, data is given a PLURAL verb.