Meta’s Wyoming data center project contaminated city wastewater with rare bacteria. Cheyenne officials have now banned industrial discharges from data centers.
Meta’s massive AI data center in Cheyenne, Wyoming, hasn’t even opened, but it has already caused a major headache for the city.
Local officials traced a rare bacterium, known as Cupriavidus gilardii, to wastewater flushed from the construction site, forcing Cheyenne to shut down two water reclamation plants for months of cleanup.
The trouble started when a contractor for Meta, Goat Systems LLC, flushed industrial water from the facility’s cooling pipes into the city’s sewer system. This fill-and-flush process, i.e., used to clear out debris before sealing the cooling loops, introduced the bacteria into Cheyenne’s water reclamation supply. Officials worry about serious health risks as this recycled water is used for irrigation.
Cheyenne officials acted fast. They permanently revoked the contractor’s discharge privileges and implemented a strict new policy: the city now prohibits all industrial wastewater discharges from data centers that use closed-loop cooling or similar flushing systems.
Meta claims it wants to be a good neighbor- immediately stopping the discharge once the board flagged the issue. They also argue that their own independent tests found no trace of the bacteria.
However, for a community already skeptical of resource-hungry AI projects, this incident is a loud warning.
This mess exposes a growing friction between the AI industry and local infrastructure.
Data centers often demand massive amounts of power and water, yet municipal systems rarely possess the safeguards to handle the unique industrial byproducts these sites generate. Cheyenne learned the hard way that when it comes to AI infrastructure, the environmental cost extends far beyond the raw volume of water consumed.
