A very, very unpleasant surprise: Meta forced to halt data center water discharges after polluting city's water reclamation system with resistant bacterium shutdown and cleaning of two water reclamation plants expected to last months

Date:
Mon, 06 Jul 2026 17:20:00 +0000

Description:
Meta has been named as the source of contamination for a rare metal and drug resistant bacterium that shut down two water reclamation plants.

FULL STORY
The city of Cheyenne has indefinitely suspended the treatment of
reclaimed water from data center projects: The Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities has announced that the city will no longer be accepting industrial wastewater from its closed-loop data center cooling system after detecting a rare bacterium in the citys reclaimed water plants.

The bacterium was detected after Goat Systems LLC -- responsible for the construction of Metas Cheyenne campus -- discharged waste water into Cheyenne's sanitary sewer. Testing then identified the bacterium Cupriavidus gilardii
had contaminated the plant, with the board recently naming the Meta data center as the source of the contamination. Two water reclamation plants were pushed offline, with a multi-month cleanup operation taking place. Goat Systems originally had its water discharge privileges revoked in late March, ahead of the wider ban against other Cheyenne data centers. The
contamination occurred during a fill-and-flush operation for the closed-loop cooling systems on the campus. This cleaning method flushes water through the pipework used to cool datacenters in order to remove debris and contaminants, before the system is filled with cooling liquid and sealed.

The reclaimed water was then routed through to the citys sanitary sewer by Goat Systems. According to Frank Strong, the Board's engineering and water resource division manager, the source of the bacterium remains unknown, but the water used to flush the system was purchased directly from the Board.

The contamination incident has brought to light new concerns surrounding how water treatment plants can handle the industrial wastewater from data center construction projects. Many closed-loop systems used chemicals such as propylene glycol as an antifreeze agent, but many water reclamation systems are not able to handle the filtration of these and other chemicals.

Moreover, the water treated by the city of Cheyennes reclamation plants is reused to water public green spaces such as parks and golf courses, raising further risks that Cupriavidus gilardii could cause human infections if aerosolized.

The two facilities, Dry Creek and Crow Creek, were forced to close for maintenance and decontamination in February, but were cleared for operation
in late June and have resumed processing reclaimed water.

Cheyenne City Councilman Pete Laybourn said that the revelation that Meta was the source of the contamination was, a very, very unpleasant surprise, adding that he has, a lot yet to learn. "It definitely complicates matters."

Predictions of water system interference come true: Many groups across the US advocating for the pause on data center construction have frequently cited concerns surrounding the use of local water and energy infrastructure. Now, both concerns have been legitimized.

Some communities in areas with new data center construction projects have experienced double digit percentage increases on electricity pricing as the new data centers require immense amounts of energy to produce the computational power needed for AI models. A bill currently making its way through Congress seeks to force tech giants to pay for the energy they use , as well as fund infrastructural upgrades to sustain reliable power for local communities.

In other regions of the US, data centers are being built in drought-hit areas , threatening already endangered local ecosystems and raising concerns around the prioritization of water resources for farms and local communities.

Via TomsHardware

Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/a-very-very-unpleasant-surprise-meta-forced-to-h alt-data-center-water-discharges-after-polluting-citys-water-reclamation-syste m-with-resistant-bacterium-shutdown-and-cleaning-of-two-water-reclamation-plan ts-expected-to-last-months

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* Origin: Capitol City Online (1:2320/107)