Meta’s AI Data Center Caught Leaking Deadly Bacteria Into Water Town Uses for Irrigation

# Meta’s AI Data Center Caught Leaking Deadly Bacteria Into Water Town Uses for Irrigation Source: [https://futurism.com/health-medicine/meta-ai-data-center-pathogen-bacteria-water](https://futurism.com/health-medicine/meta-ai-data-center-pathogen-bacteria-water)  Illustration by Tag Hartman\-Simkins / Futurism\. Source: Shutterstock## Sign up to see the future, today Can’t\-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech With public anger at AI data centers[boiling over](https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-tech-billionaires-mark-cuban-scared-public), all it takes is one bad neighbor to get every data center in town locked out\. That’s the story unfolding in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where local officials are revoking waste\-dumping privileges for every data center campus connected to municipal water services\. As[*Cowboy State Daily*reported](https://cowboystatedaily.com/2026/07/02/cheyenne-wont-take-data-center-wastewater-after-meta-company-contaminated-system/), the Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities has rolled out a sweeping ban on fill\-and\-flush discharge, the process in which data centers flood their cooling systems with water before powering up for the first time\. That decision came after one bad actor, the Meta\-affiliated data center company Goat Systems LLC, flooded local waste water pipes with fill\-and\-flush swill containing a rare and deadly bacterium known as*Cupriavidus gilardii*\. Per*Cowboy State*, Goat Systems was found to be in “significant noncompliance” with Cheyenne’s industrial waste regulations after a months\-long investigation traced the bacteria to Meta’s discharge\. “This isn’t something we normally test for,” Frank Strong, Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities engineering and water resource division manager[told the*Wyoming Tribune Eagle*](https://www.wyomingnews.com/laramieboomerang/news/cheyenne-bopu-traces-rare-bacteria-discharge-to-meta-data-center-contractor/article_df359a2e-bc2f-41e7-a80f-cdb0ca41b4d8.html)of the investigation\. Strong noted that the bacterium was first spotted during routine testing for fecal contamination, adding that it’s a bizarre pathogen to find in any wastewater, even that coming from a data center\. “We actually had to go through quite a process to figure out what it was,” he said\. *Cupriavidus*is a little\-known, multidrug\-resistant pathogen\. Though human infection is extremely rare, it has nonetheless been linked to ten deaths, including[three cases](https://journals.lww.com/tp/fulltext/2025/12000/challenge_of_cupriavidus_gilardii_infection_in_an.25.aspx)involving immunocompromised children\. According to[one review](https://www.mdpi.com/2036-7449/18/2/24)of*Cupriavidus*cases, the bacterial infection has a mortality rate of 31\.3 percent, out of a sample size of 32 known infections dating back to 2009\. “As soon as we became aware of the bacteria, and then of where it was coming from, we shut them down immediately,” Strong told the*Wyoming Tribune*\. Strong caveated that the exact source of the pathogen within the facility is still unknown, but that wastewater from Meta’s 800,000 square foot[Cheyenne campus](https://datacenters.atmeta.com/2024/07/hello-cheyenne/)— which is still under construction — nonetheless contained it\. Cheyenne’s sanitary sewer system routes to a water reclamation plant, which supplies water for parks and other public green space\. Citing concerns around what happens if*Cupriavidus*\-laden water was released during irrigation, Strong says the city temporarily shuttered its reclamation program to conduct additional tests\. “The concern we have with our reuse system is we put it into aerosol, where we spray it onto the grass, and that increases the potential for health issues,” Strong told the*Wyoming Tribune*\. Meta, for its part, told reporters that it’s working with construction contractor Fortis to “resolve this 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,” a Meta spokesperson told*Cowboy State*\. Though it seems nobody has contracted the potentially deadly bacterium as a result of Meta’s fill\-and\-flush, the city’s response to the incident underscores the degree to which people across the US are[scrutinizing data centers](https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-data-centers-opposition-inflation)— and the undeniable impact they have on their neighbors\. **More on Meta AI:***[Meta Paid Hundreds of Contractors to Pretend to Be Teenagers While Barraging Its Competitors’ AI With Disturbing Content](https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/meta-contractors-competitor-ai-with-disturbing-content)*