Meta Data Center Contractor Contaminates Cheyenne Water Supply with Deadly Bacteria
A Meta data center contractor, Goat Systems LLC, caused a bacterial contamination in Cheyenne, Wyoming's municipal water system during a cooling pipe flushing, leading to a multi-month shutdown of water reclamation plants. The incident resulted in the revocation of the contractor's discharge privileges and a city-wide ban on similar industrial discharges from data centers.
In Cheyenne, Wyoming, the municipal water reclamation plants faced a multi-month shutdown after a contractor for a Meta data center, Goat Systems LLC, contaminated the city's sewer system with the deadly bacterium Cupriavidus gilardii. The contamination occurred during a routine "fill and flush" procedure designed to clean cooling pipes at the massive 800,000 square foot Meta Data Center project. The bacterium, a multi-drug resistant pathogen, is known to cause severe pneumonia and sepsis, particularly in immunocompromised individuals.
The Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities traced the pathogen's source directly to the campus under construction by Goat Systems LLC. Engineering Manager Frank Strong stated that the discovery was made during routine fecal matter testing, and the presence of such a pathogen in industrial wastewater was unexpected. As Cheyenne reuses treated water for irrigating public parks and golf courses, the potential for aerosolized transmission necessitated the complete suspension and extensive decontamination of the Dry Creek and Crow Creek Water Reclamation Plants.
Following the incident, Goat Systems LLC was declared in significant non-compliance with industrial waste regulations, leading to the immediate revocation of their discharge privileges. Although Meta representatives noted that contractor Fortis subsequently halted all industrial wastewater discharge and began off-site hauling, the damage to the city's water system had already occurred. The city of Cheyenne has since implemented a broader ban on similar industrial discharge practices from data centers. Councilman Pete Leibold expressed the community's "deeply unpleasant surprise" at the contamination, legitimizing resident fears about the environmental impact of large-scale data centers on municipal utility infrastructure, prompting calls for mandatory pre-discharge pathogen testing and onsite wastewater treatment for future developments.