- Meta was the source of bacterial contamination that shut down Cheyenne’s water extraction plant
- The water was used to fill and flush closed cooling systems in a Meta data center
- The City of Cheyenne has indefinitely suspended the processing of reclaimed water from data center projects
The Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities has announced that the city will no longer accept industrial wastewater from its closed data center cooling system after discovering a rare bacteria in the city’s reclaimed water plant.
The bacteria was discovered after Goat Systems LLC — responsible for the construction of Meta’s Cheyenne campus — discharged wastewater into Cheyenne’s sanitary sewer. Testing then identified the bacteria Cupriavidus gilardii had contaminated the facility, with the board recently naming the Meta data center as the source of the contamination.
Two water reclamation plants were pushed offline and a multi-month cleanup operation took place. Goat Systems initially had its water discharge privileges revoked in late March, ahead of the broader ban on other Cheyenne data centers.
The contamination occurred during a fill-and-flush operation for the closed cooling systems on campus. This cleaning method flushes water through the piping system used to cool data centers to remove dirt and contaminants before filling the system with coolant and sealing it.
The reclaimed water was then piped through to the city’s sanitary sewer by Goat Systems. According to Frank Strong, the board’s engineering and water resources division chief, the source of the bacteria remains unknown, but the water used to flush the system was purchased directly from the board.
The pollution incident has brought new concerns to light about how water treatment plants can handle the industrial wastewater from data center construction. Many closed systems used chemicals such as propylene glycol as an antifreeze, but many water recovery systems are unable to handle the filtration of these and other chemicals.
Additionally, the water treated by the City of Cheyenne’s reclamation facility is reused to irrigate public green spaces such as parks and golf courses, further increasing risks that Cupriavidus gilardii can cause infections in humans if injected.
The two facilities, Dry Creek and Crow Creek, were forced to close for maintenance and decontamination in February, but were cleared for operation in late June and have resumed processing reclaimed water.
Cheyenne City Councilman Pete Laybourn said the revelation that Meta was the source of the contamination was “a very, very unpleasant surprise,” adding that he has “a lot to learn. It certainly complicates matters.”
Water system interference predictions are coming true
Many groups across the United States advocating for a pause in data center construction have often cited concerns about the use of local water and energy infrastructure. Now both concerns have been legitimized.
Some communities in areas with new data center construction projects have seen double-digit percentage increases in electricity rates, as the new data centers require massive amounts of energy to produce the computing power needed for AI models. A bill making its way through Congress seeks to force tech giants to pay for the energy they use, as well as fund infrastructure upgrades to maintain reliable power for communities.
In other regions of the United States, data centers are being built in drought-stricken areas, threatening already threatened local ecosystems and raising concerns about the prioritization of water resources for farms and communities.
Via Tom’s Hardware
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews and opinions in your feeds.
