When officials in Wyoming conducted a routine test on the water that was being discharged from a massive under-construction Meta datacenter, it was a shock to find it contained a rare and potentially hazardous bacterium. While the wastewater flushed into sewers in Cheyenne, Wyoming, was never destined for the public drinking supply, the presence of Cupriavidus gilardii bacterium in 801,000 gallons of water ejected by a contractor for the datacenter earlier this year was still unnerving. Concerned that residents could be exposed to the bacteria if they inhaled evaporating droplets of the water used for irrigation, Cheyenne officials took until July before deciding to stop taking wastewater from Meta’s contractor, Goat Systems – a decision that is now being appealed.
In Virginia, authorities have brought enforcement actions against several datacenters for wastewater and wetland permit violations, in West Virginia stormwater runoff from an incomplete datacenter has twice flooded surrounding houses, all while locals and activists have campaigned against the discharge of heated water from an upcoming datacenter into Lake Seneca, in New York. The Waterkeeper Alliance, a network of environmental organizations, said 55 of its affiliated groups across the US were working on datacenter-related issues, with 80% of these campaigns centered on concerns that pollutants may be leaching into the environment via discharged water. Some of this backlash is now set to play out in the courts.
In Georgia, Flint Riverkeeper has said it will sue the QTS datacenter in Fayetteville for allegedly ejecting “massive amounts of dirt [and] massive concentrations of metals” into the Flint River over the past two years. A mid-sized datacenter can consume about 300,000 gallons of water a day. After water is used for cooling or, such as at the Meta facility in Cheyenne, for cleaning debris from pipes in “fill and flush” operations, liquid is ejected back for reuse under terms set by pretreatment permits issued by counties or local wastewater utilities.
This water, released to prevent buildup of minerals and scaling in pipes, can contain heavy metals or Pfas, the “forever chemicals” that are linked to an array of health problems when ingested. These Pfas can be found in the “closed loop” cooling systems that the datacenter industry lauds for using less water. When used as a coolant, water can come back out hotter than when it was taken, which has alarmed critics of a controversial gas-fired facility that is pivoting from powering crypto mining to AI and draws water from Lake Seneca.
The water, opponents point out, can be discharged at a temperature of 108F (42C) into the lake. So you can’t even shower, or you don’t even want to flush your toilet. You definitely don’t want to give your pets water from this.” Vulcan Infrastructure and Power, which is behind the revamped facility, has previously stressed it has complied with all relevant environmental laws.
The company was approached for further comment. New York has issued a temporary moratorium on huge, hyperscale datacenters and Taylor claimed there was swelling support across the US for a national pause. An environmental group has sued the city of Racine, Wisconsin, to force more details on the water use of a $3.3bn Microsoft datacenter while the city of The Dalles in Oregon sued its local newspaper, the Oregonian, in 2021 to block the public release of water data related to a Google datacenter, before subsequently dropping the case.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
