New regulations bar closed-loop cooling discharge citywide
The Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities (BOPU) identified the bacterium in February during routine testing of wastewater discharged from the cooling system of Meta’s campus in the High Plains Business Park, the Wyoming Tribune Eagle reported. Officials determined that Goat Systems LLC, a Delaware-based contractor working on the 800,000-square-foot facility known as Project Cosmo, was responsible for the discharge.
BOPU permanently revoked Meta’s authority to discharge waste into Cheyenne’s water treatment facilities, where recycled water is used for irrigation in parks and other public spaces. The city also adopted a new policy prohibiting wastewater discharges from data centers using closed-loop cooling systems and fill-and-flush systems, which circulate purified water to remove construction debris, flux residue, and pipe scale, Frank Strong, BOPU’s engineering and water resource division manager, told the newspaper. Under the new regulations, companies using such systems must build and implement separate collection systems that direct water from cooling equipment or floor drains into storage tanks for offsite disposal, rather than flushing it into the city’s sanitary sewer.
The bacterium found in the discharge was Cupriavidus gilardii, a naturally occurring soil microbe that health experts classify as an opportunistic pathogen harmful primarily to people with existing serious health conditions or weakened immune systems. A March 2026 study in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases reported a patient who died of septic shock after contracting a Cupriavidus gilardii infection during a cord blood transplantation. The study noted that known human cases are rare, with only seven reported to date. Among them was a 12-year-old American girl who died of sepsis after contracting the infection during a European vacation, according to a 2010 report in the National Library of Medicine.
Strong told the Tribune Eagle that the bacterium’s entry point into the water was unknown, only that it was present during routine fecal bacteria testing. “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 resumed after the datacenter’s wastewater was no longer being discharged, he added.
In a statement to The Guardian, a Meta spokesperson said the company took immediate action upon learning of the issue. “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,” the statement 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 would not address media questions in the meantime.
Public opposition to Project Cosmo was already growing before the bacteria incident, the Cowboy State Daily reported in May, with environmental questions raised about the safety and integrity of closed-loop cooling systems used by Meta and other tech companies.