Breaking: Meta's AI Data Center Caught Leaking Deadly Bacteria into Water Town Uses for irrigation.

Breaking down what actually happened in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Meta is constructing a roughly $800 million AI data center there, known during development as Project Cosmo, still not operational. In late February 2026, city utility staff doing routine wastewater sampling found an unusual bacterium, later identified by the Wyoming Public Health Laboratory as Cupriavidus gilardii, a rare, metal-resistant organism normally found in soil and groundwater. It is not a regulated contaminant, but it interfered with operations at two water reclamation plants, Dry Creek and Crow Creek, and contaminated the city's reuse water system, forcing months of cleanup. The source was traced to wastewater from a fill and flush operation on the data center's closed loop cooling pipes, discharged into the city sewer by Goat Systems, the entity Meta uses for construction. On March 24, the Board of Public Utilities revoked that company's discharge privileges, and in early July it publicly named Meta and suspended acceptance of fill-and-flush and closed-loop wastewater from every data center connected to city services. Important context. This hit reclaimed water used for irrigation, not the public drinking supply, and later testing cleared the plants. Officials also flagged a broader worry: that closed-loop cooling systems can carry glycol and other chemicals municipal plants are not built to treat. Meta says its general contractor stopped discharging, is hauling wastewater offsite, and that independent testing found no trace of the substance. #datacenters #watercrisis #pollution