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Officials in Wyoming said a contractor for Mark Zuckerberg’s tech company, Meta, flushed bacteria-contaminated water into public sewers during construction of a controversial new AI datacenter.

The incident prompted water authorities in Cheyenne to implement strict safety regulations on how wastewater from such projects is disposed of, according to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, which first reported the incident.

Meta has ordered its general contractor, Fortis, to cooperate with the Cheyenne board of public utilities (BOPU) to ensure there is no repeat, the newspaper said, insisting it wanted to be “a good neighbor”.

The company, however, noted that contamination by the rare but naturally occurring Cupriavidus gilardii bacteria did not affect drinking water supplies, and that its contractor’s own water testing by an independent environmental specialist found no trace of it.

The incident comes amid growing nationwide backlash to the construction of resource-hungry datacenters, which opponents say place unbearable demands on local water and energy supplies. According to Data Center Map, the US has almost 4,500 datacenters, some consuming up to 300,000 gallons of water each day, equivalent to the demands of about 1,000 households.

The Cheyenne contamination was discovered in February during routine testing of wastewater discharged into public sewers from the cooling system of the datacenter campus in the High Plains Business Park, the Tribune Eagle reported.

Officials identified Goat Systems LLC, a Delaware-based contractor on the 800,000 sq ft facility known as Project Cosmo, as being responsible. The city permanently revoked Meta’s authority to discharge waste into Cheyenne’s water treatment facilities, where it is recycled and used for irrigation in parks and other public spaces.

The city also adopted a new policy prohibiting wastewater discharges from datacenters using closed loop cooling systems and fill and flush systems, which involve circulating purified water to remove construction debris, flux residue, and pipe scale, Frank Strong, BOPU’s engineering and water resource division manager, told the newspaper.

Cupriavidus gilardii is a naturally occurring bacterium found in soil, regarded by health experts as an “opportunistic pathogen” harmful only to people with existing serious health conditions or weakened immune systems.

A March 2026 study published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases found a patient who died of septic shock after contracting an infection from Cupriavidus gilardii during a cord blood transplantation procedure.

The report said known cases of human infection were rare, with only seven reported to date. Among them was a 12-year-old American girl who died of sepsis after contracting an infection during a European vacation, according to a 2010 report in the National Library of Medicine.

Strong said it was not known when the bacterium entered the water, only that it was present during routine fecal bacteria testing on the discharged water.

“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,” he said. The city’s irrigation program had resumed now that the datacenter’s wastewater was no longer being discharged, he said.

In a statement sent to the Guardian, a Meta spokesperson said the company took action immediately when it became aware of problems with Project Cosmo.

“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,” it said.

“Fortis also began its own water testing with an independent environmental specialist, which has found no trace of the substance.

“Meta is committed to being a good neighbor in Cheyenne, including through the protection of local water resources, and will continue encouraging collaboration between Fortis and the board until this situation is resolved.”

Erin Lamb, BOPU’s administrative and public affairs coordinator, said in an email that the city will host a press conference “in the next week or so”, and will not address media questions in the meantime.

Public opposition to the Project Cosmo mega datacenter was already growing before the bacteria incident.

The Cowboy State Daily reported in May on pushback to projects in Cheyenne and elsewhere in Wyoming, including environmental questions about the safety and integrity of so-called closed loop cooling systems used by Meta and their tech company rivals pushing the artificial intelligence revolution.

The new regulations adopted by Cheyenne, Strong told the Tribune Eagle, requires companies using closed loop cooling systems to build and implement separate collection systems that direct water from cooling equipment or associated floor drains into storage tanks and offsite disposal, rather than flushing it into the city’s sanitary sewer.