AI data centres already get a lot of hate (for valid reasons), but Meta just gave the general public even more reasons to hate them, as the company gears up to build one in Edmonton.
Essentially, a Meta-affiliated data centre company, Goat Systems LLC, flooded local wastewater pipes in Wyoming with fill-and-flush waste (a process in which data centres flood their cooling systems before powering up for the first time) containing a rare (and deadly) bacterium, Cupriavidus gilardii.
According to Cowboy State Daily, Goat Systems was found to be in “significant noncompliance” with the industrial waste regulations of nearby Cheyenne, Wyoming, after a months-long investigation traced the bacteria back to the data centre.
The city of Cheyenne has now revoked waste-dumping privileges for every data centre campus connected to municipal water services. Alongside this, the Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities has rolled out a sweeping ban on the previously-mentioned fill-and-flush discharge.
In an interview with the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, Frank Strong, manager of the engineering and water resource division, Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities, said the bacterium was first spotted during routine testing for fecal contamination, adding that it is a bizarre pathogen to find in any wastewater — even coming from a data centre.
Cheyenne’s sanitary sewer system directs wastewater to a water reclamation plant, which in turn supplies parks and other green spaces with reclaimed water. Strong says that, because of concerns about whether the Cupriavidus-infected water was released during irrigation, the city has temporarily closed its reclamation program to conduct additional tests.
To add some context, Cupriavidius is a little-known, multidrug-resistant pathogen. Although getting infected by it is really rare, Futurism notes that it has still been linked to 10 deaths, including three cases that involved immunocompromised children.
Meta told Cowboy State that it’s working to resolve the issue and it asked construction contractor Fortis to ” immediately stopped discharging industrial wastewater” at the site.
While it seems nobody has contracted the bacterium from Meta’s fill-and-flush, the incident raises concerns about data centre safety, especially as more of these tech companies seek to bring data centres north of the border.
Source: Futurism
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