A contractor working for Meta released bacteria-contaminated water into public sewers during the construction of an artificial intelligence datacenter in Wyoming, as reported by The Guardian.
The incident occurred in Cheyenne and led local water authorities to enforce strict safety regulations regarding wastewater disposal for such projects.
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Meta ordered its general contractor, Fortis, to cooperate with the Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities (BOPU) to ensure the situation does not happen again.
The tech company stated that the contamination involved Cupriavidus gilardii bacteria, which did not affect public drinking water supplies.
An independent environmental specialist hired by the contractor conducted separate water testing and found no trace of the bacteria.
The issue comes amid a nationwide backlash against resource-heavy datacenters, which critics argue place high demands on local water and energy resources.
The contamination was identified in February during routine testing of wastewater discharged from the cooling system at the High Plains Business Park facility.
Officials named Goat Systems LLC, a Delaware-based contractor working on the 800,000-square-foot facility known as Project Cosmo, as responsible.
Cheyenne permanently revoked Meta's authority to discharge waste into its treatment facilities, where water is recycled for irrigation in public parks.
The city adopted a new policy banning wastewater discharges from datacenters that utilize closed-loop cooling and fill-and-flush systems.
Frank Strong, BOPU's engineering and water resource division manager, explained that fill-and-flush systems circulate purified water to remove construction debris and pipe scale.
