[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"branding":3,"analytics":7,"article-four-states-four-different-data-center-water-problems":10,"sections":49},{"siteName":4,"siteTagline":5,"publisherName":4,"contactEmail":6},"The Revision","Tech news, decoded.","editor@therevision.news",{"gaMeasurementId":8,"adsenseClientId":9},"G-ZW2MV82GYR","ca-pub-8533917693782264",{"article":11},{"id":12,"slug":13,"title":14,"dek":15,"body_md":16,"tags_json":17,"published_at":18,"created_at":19,"updated_at":20,"status":21,"review_note":22,"review_notes":23,"image_url":22,"persona_id":22,"persona_name":22,"section":38,"tags":39,"sources":44,"feedback":48,"feedback_at":22,"cost_usd":48,"total_tokens":48},6200,"four-states-four-different-data-center-water-problems","Four states, four different data center water problems","A bacterium shut down two Wyoming treatment plants; Virginia, New York, and Georgia face separate wastewater problems of their own.","Data center wastewater isn't causing the same problem everywhere - it just keeps causing problems.\n\nIn Wyoming, Meta's contractor Goat Systems discharged 801,000 gallons of wastewater from the company's 960-acre Cheyenne construction site into local sewers. Regulators found a drug-resistant bacterium, Cupriavidus gilardii, in the water and pulled two treatment plants offline for a multi-month cleanup. Officials also worried residents could inhale contaminated droplets if the water was used for irrigation. Goat Systems is now appealing the decision to stop accepting the site's wastewater.\n\nThe other three cases look nothing like Wyoming's. Enforcement actions in Virginia cite wetland and stormwater violations, including one construction site whose runoff flooded a nearby residential area twice. Near Lake Seneca, New York, a data center that switched from crypto mining to AI workloads reportedly discharges water at up to 108F directly into the lake, bypassing treatment plants entirely - a practice Seneca Lake Guardian says risks fish kills and algae blooms; operator Vulcan Infrastructure and Power says it complies with environmental law. In Georgia, newly approved data centers can draw from the Chattahoochee River, but Chattahoochee Riverkeeper says there's no public data on how much water is taken or what, including potential PFAS, goes back in.\n\nThe common thread isn't overflowing treatment plants - it's that almost nobody outside these companies knows what's actually in the water. Many treatment plants were never built to filter industrial contaminants like heavy metals or PFAS, closed-loop cooling systems still need periodic pipe flushes that go straight into sewers, and much of this construction is happening in drought-prone regions where water was already scarce.\n\nA company saying it \"complies with all relevant environmental laws\" doesn't mean much when regulators and watchdogs can't get basic numbers on discharge volume or content in the first place.","[\"data centers\",\"wastewater\",\"environment\",\"ai infrastructure\"]","2026-09-09T16:25:00.000Z","2026-09-09T17:19:34.708Z","2026-09-09T17:19:46.660Z","published",null,[24,30,34],{"id":25,"reviewer":26,"round":27,"reason":28,"status":29},"editor-r1","editor",1,"The dek asserts PFAS contamination as an established fact, but the body never mentions PFAS anywhere (the source's PFAS detail — Chris Manganiello's 'forever chemicals' quote on the Chattahoochee — was dropped) — either restore that specific, sourced detail into the Georgia paragraph or remove PFAS from the dek so the two match.","resolved",{"id":31,"reviewer":26,"round":32,"reason":33,"status":29},"editor-r2",2,"The closing paragraph ('first it was chips, then electricity, now it's the water...') is speculative editorializing that trails off instead of a concrete concluding statement, and the headline's claim of wastewater 'leaking into US Rivers' overstates the reporting, which mostly documents discharges into sewers\u002Ftreatment plants (only Seneca Lake, not a river, receives direct discharge) — replace the ending with a factual closer and tighten the headline to match what's actually documented.",{"id":35,"reviewer":26,"round":36,"reason":37,"status":29},"editor-r3",3,"The headline and dek claim data-center wastewater is 'swamping\u002Fstraining US treatment plants' across all four states, but the body shows only the Wyoming case actually overwhelmed treatment plants — Virginia's violations are wetland\u002Fstormwater flooding, Seneca Lake bypasses treatment plants entirely via direct lake discharge, and Georgia is about river water withdrawal transparency, not plant strain — so tighten the headline\u002Fdek to match what's actually documented across the four cases.","policy",[40,41,42,43],"data centers","wastewater","environment","ai infrastructure",[45],{"name":46,"url":47},"TechRadar","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.techradar.com\u002Fpro\u002Frare-bacteria-heavy-metals-and-toxic-pollutants-are-leaking-from-data-centers-across-the-united-states-breaking-treatment-facilities-and-poisoning-rivers",0,{"sections":50},[51,56,60,64,69,74,79,83,88,93,98,103,108,113],{"name":52,"slug":53,"count":54,"latest_published_at":55},"AI","ai",3480,"2026-09-11T04:00:00.000Z",{"name":57,"slug":58,"count":59,"latest_published_at":55},"Security","security",628,{"name":61,"slug":38,"count":62,"latest_published_at":63},"Policy",336,"2026-09-11T00:56:21.000Z",{"name":65,"slug":66,"count":67,"latest_published_at":68},"Deals","deals",179,"2026-06-29T20:02:07.000Z",{"name":70,"slug":71,"count":72,"latest_published_at":73},"Hardware","hardware",153,"2026-09-09T15:12:32.000Z",{"name":75,"slug":76,"count":77,"latest_published_at":78},"Consumer Tech","consumer-tech",99,"2026-09-09T17:27:33.000Z",{"name":80,"slug":81,"count":82,"latest_published_at":55},"Science","science",98,{"name":84,"slug":85,"count":86,"latest_published_at":87},"Software","software",75,"2026-09-10T20:41:21.000Z",{"name":89,"slug":90,"count":91,"latest_published_at":92},"Dev Tools","dev-tools",69,"2026-08-18T04:00:00.000Z",{"name":94,"slug":95,"count":96,"latest_published_at":97},"Startups","startups",55,"2026-09-09T23:14:29.000Z",{"name":99,"slug":100,"count":101,"latest_published_at":102},"Gaming","gaming",43,"2026-09-10T12:18:06.000Z",{"name":104,"slug":105,"count":106,"latest_published_at":107},"General","general",41,"2026-09-08T01:57:23.000Z",{"name":109,"slug":110,"count":111,"latest_published_at":112},"Reviews","reviews",20,"2026-06-24T12:00:01.000Z",{"name":114,"slug":115,"count":116,"latest_published_at":117},"How-To","how-to",6,"2026-06-16T09:00:00.000Z"]