Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities
Officials in the city of Cheyenne, Wyoming, say a massive, under-construction Meta data center campus located just south of the city is responsible for contaminating part of its recycled water system.
Cheyenne's Board of Public Utilities said in recent public notices that water discharged by Goat Systems, a Meta contractor at the site, contaminated the city's wastewater treatment facility with a rare bacterium.
That facility includes Cheyenne's reuse water system, which is used solely for irrigation, a board spokesperson said. The system cleans used water so it can be safely released back into the environment or reused for watering things like parks and golf courses. The bacterium did not enter the city's drinking supply, city officials said.
"We were able to connect the Meta Data Center campus to this through sampling their site and it was determined to be through their fill-and-flush discharge that the bacteria was introduced to the system," Erin Lamb, a spokesperson for the Board of Public Utilities, told Business Insider on Tuesday.
Meta says a fill-and-flush operation is a "critical, one-time" step performed during construction. The process clears debris from the pipes used to cool the data center when it's operational. The data center will use a "closed-loop" cooling system that recycles the same liquid within the facility, Meta said.
The board's public notice characterized the infraction as "significant noncompliance" and revoked Goat Systems' "industrial discharge privileges for fill and flush operations." While the board posted the notice on July 2, it said the operations were halted on March 24.
Goat Systems, the Meta contractor, "immediately ceased discharge of wastewater from the fill and flush operation" after it was notified of the pollutant, Cheyenne's Board of Public Utilities said. A representative for Goat Systems could not be reached for comment by Business Insider.
A Meta spokesperson told Business Insider the company is working with its general contractor, Fortis, to resolve the issue.
"When the board shared that it found a substance in the city's wastewater — not public drinking water — Fortis immediately stopped discharging industrial wastewater and began hauling it offsite," the spokesperson said. "Fortis also began its own water testing with an independent environmental specialist, which has found no trace of the substance."
A spokesperson for Fortis said the company "takes its environmental obligations seriously and will continue to work constructively with BOPU and all relevant authorities as this matter is fully resolved."
The Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities said in its notice that it would pause accepting industrial water discharge from any data center's fill-and-flush operations and from their entire closed-loop cooling systems.
The board said the bacterium it found in the wastewater was Cupriavidus gilardii. Although infections are rare, direct exposure can pose a risk to older people or those who are immunocompromised. Laboratory staff identified the bacterium during a wastewater sampling in February, the board said.
"Over the past two months, BOPU staff have undertaken significant remediation efforts, including draining and disinfecting the entire reuse water system and Prairie View Pond to eliminate any remaining bacterial presence," the board said in its notice. "To prevent potential migration throughout the reuse distribution network, all affected irrigation systems were temporarily converted to potable water supplies."
Lamb, the spokesperson for BOPU, told Business Insider that the agency plans to hold a press conference on the matter in the next week or so.
Meta announced the $800 million, 715,000-square-foot data center development in 2024. Once the campus is fully operational, Meta says it will be wholly sustainable. The company said it aims to be water-positive by 2030, meaning it will restore more water than it consumes.
"The Cheyenne Data Center will be optimized for our AI workloads and help people connect, build communities, and grow their businesses," Meta said at the time of its announcement.
Data centers have become a divisive topic. Tech companies are spending billions of dollars to develop the facilities that power their AI products. They say data centers can generate economic growth, create jobs, and push the US ahead in the AI race against China.
Critics, however, are much less enthused. Many Americans are pushing back against data centers and don't want them anywhere near their communities. They're concerned that the sprawling facilities will negatively impact water resources, worsen air quality, increase noise levels, and interfere with their quality of life. Some protesters have swarmed local planning meetings, created petitions, and taken legal action to stop construction.
In response, a handful of legislators have taken steps to place parameters around data center developments or ban them altogether. At the federal level, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York proposed a moratorium on AI data centers.
The data center industry is still speeding full steam ahead, however. By the end of 2025, there were over 1,400 data centers built or approved for construction in 45 states and Washington, DC.
Correction: July 8, 2026 — An earlier version of this story misstated Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's role. She's a congresswoman.
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Lauren Edmonds
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Lauren Edmonds is an award-winning reporter on the Business News team. When news isn't breaking, she covers personal finance, kitchen-table economics, and paths to financial freedom, including investing, real estate, side hustles, and small business. She also writes about guaranteed and universal basic income programs in the United States.Lauren has also covered lifestyle and entertainment, digital culture, and more. She has a master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and resides in New York City.Do you have an interesting story to tell? You can reach Lauren at [email protected] or on Signal at ledmonds0.07.Popular StoriesNetflix wants to be Disney when it grows up Why Hollywood is paying this 17-year-old up to $20,000 to boost film trailers with TikTok editsHere's all the free money Trump's talked about giving Americans during his second term — and where it all standsA 17-year-old earned $72,000 after investing his e-commerce profits into stocks. Here's why he bet on the tech industry.Lawmakers float a nationwide basic income experiment that would cover the cost of a 2-bedroom apartmentNearly 30,000 Americans have received about $335 million in basic income. Here are 5 takeaways. Americans ditch suffocating healthcare costs and divisive politics to retire in Italy: 'It's the way they approach life'From 'road-schooling' to gas that costs $500, this family of 4 shares what it's like living in a solar-powered Greyhound bus
Natalie Musumeci
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Natalie is a senior reporter on Business Insider's Business News team.She was previously on BI's Legal Affairs team where she covered major cases out of state and federal court, as well as bankruptcy. Her coverage often focused on stories at the intersection of law, business, politics and technology. Natalie has covered Donald Trump’s criminal and civil cases, the wave of lawsuits against the second Trump administration, the indictment and criminal trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs, the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and the legal battles facing Elon Musk and his companies. Natalie came to Business Insider in June 2021 as a breaking news reporter, focusing on the most interesting angles around the trending news of the day. Natalie largely drove BI’s coverage around the fatal “Rust” shooting involving Alec Baldwin and the disappearance and murder of Gabby Petito.Prior to joining BI, Natalie worked for the New York Post, the New York Daily News, and The Brooklyn Paper. She has an extensive background covering crime and courts. During her more than 12-year journalism career, she did a stint covering the police beat out of the headquarters for the New York Police Department. Natalie, a Brooklyn native, graduated from Brooklyn College in 2012 with a journalism degree. Popular articles
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