Meta’s AI campus flushed a rare bacterium into Cheyenne’s water. The city hit back
July 8, 2026
A Meta contractor flushed a rare, potentially deadly bacterium into Cheyenne’s wastewater system. The Wyoming city has now suspended all data centre discharge, a fresh flashpoint in the fight over AI’s thirst for water.
Officials in Cheyenne, Wyoming, have stopped accepting industrial wastewater from data centres. The trigger was a contractor building Meta’s new AI campus, which flushed a rare bacterium into the city’s water system, the Guardian reported.
The Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities named Goat Systems, a Meta contractor, as the source. The company discharged water carrying Cupriavidus gilardii, a rare and multidrug-resistant pathogen. It reached the city’s reuse system, which cleans water for irrigating parks and golf courses. It did not enter the drinking supply.