# Meta AI Data Centre Contractor Triggers Biohazard Scare After Flushing Rare Bacterium Into Public Sewers > Source: > Published: 2026-07-09 12:53:08+00:00 # Meta AI Data Centre Contractor Triggers Biohazard Scare After Flushing Rare Bacterium Into Public Sewers ## Cheyenne officials shut down public irrigation after a contractor's discharge introduces a rare bacterium into the sewer system. A contractor building [Meta's AI data centre in Cheyenne](https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/controversial-ai-data-centre-bacteria-wastewater-1807784) discharged construction water carrying a rare, multidrug-resistant bacterium into the city's sewers, forcing officials to shut down a public irrigation system as a precaution. The Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities has identified Goat Systems LLC, a contractor on [Meta's in-progress campus](https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/metas-data-centre-construction-cheyenne-water-policy-overhaul-1806939), as the source of Cupriavidus gilardii found in the municipal wastewater system. Officials permanently stripped the site's discharge privileges and banned a whole category of data centre wastewater in response. They also stressed, repeatedly, that drinking water was never affected and that the health risk to the public was low. ## How Routine Testing Uncovered A Rare Bacterium The bacterium first surfaced in February during routine testing for faecal contamination, not through any targeted search. Frank Strong, the board's engineering and water resource division manager, told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle that staff had to work through a lengthy identification process to establish what they had found. Strong described the discovery as highly unusual, saying the utility had never seen the bacterium before and knew of no comparable discharges into its system. Once the source was traced, the board acted quickly. 'As soon as we became aware of the bacteria, and then of where it was coming from, we shut them down immediately,' he said. The utility does not know where the bacterium originated. Officials established only that the water Goat Systems released already contained it, and, in an added twist, that the contractor had bought that water from the board in the first place. ## The Fill-And-Flush Discharge That Reached A Public Reuse System Goat Systems, which is overseeing construction of the roughly 800,000-square-foot campus, discharged what the industry calls fill-and-flush water into the sanitary sewer. That process circulates purified water through new cooling pipes to clear debris, flux residue and scale before the loop is drained and refilled with fresh coolant. The contaminated water flowed into a system that supplies treated wastewater for irrigating parks, golf courses and other green spaces, not the drinking supply. Strong said the specific worry was aerosolisation. '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. Because so little is documented about the organism, the board suspended the reclaimed water programme rather than risk spraying it across public lawns. Some bacteria did pass through treatment and reach Crow Creek, though officials judged that the exposure risk was low, since people do not encounter the creek the way they meet irrigation spray. Both treatment plants have since tested clear, and reuse irrigation has resumed. ## A Rare Bacterium That Mainly Threatens Vulnerable Patients Cupriavidus gilardii lives naturally in soil and water and is usually harmless, according to the National Library of Medicine. It acts as an opportunistic pathogen, meaning it mostly threatens people who are already ill or whose immune systems are weakened. Human infections are extremely rare, but they can turn fatal in vulnerable patients. A case review published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases (March 2026) and cited across coverage recorded a mortality rate above 30 percent among a small sample of 32 known infections dating back to 2009, with the bug linked to around ten deaths, including several immunocompromised children. Cheyenne LEADS chief executive Betsey Hale sought to put the episode in proportion, noting the contamination happened during construction rather than data centre operation and that the organism was not created by the building work. 'It came into the system at a level that was monitored, caught and needed to be remediated,' she said. ## Why Cheyenne Tightened Wastewater Rules For Data Centres The board's response reached well beyond a single contractor. It permanently revoked the site's discharge privileges and adopted a policy barring wastewater from any data centre using fill-and-flush or closed-loop cooling, requiring such firms to build separate storage tanks instead of draining into municipal sewers. Strong said the concern extends past this one bacterium to glycol and other chemicals in closed-loop systems that treatment plants are not built to handle. Existing Cheyenne data centres are largely unaffected because they use evaporative cooling, and the Meta campus itself is split, with a closed-loop first phase and an evaporative second phase. A Meta spokesperson said the company is backing its general contractor, Fortis, to resolve the matter, adding that Fortis halted the discharges and began hauling wastewater offsite once the board flagged the substance, and that its own independent testing found no trace of it. The incident now prompted Cheyenne to permanently tighten how wastewater from certain data centres can be discharged into the city's sewer system. © Copyright IBTimes 2025. All rights reserved.