Meta data center allegedly muddies Georgia town's drinking water, investigation underway — EPA promises immediate investigation after congresswoman brings dirty jars of water to hearing
Morgan County residents are complaining about dirty water coming out of their faucets ever since Meta began constructing a data center near the area.
Meta data center allegedly muddies Georgia town's drinking water, investigation underway — EPA promises immediate investigation after congresswoman brings dirty jars of water to hearing | Tom's Hardware
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A Meta data center project is reportedly causing issues in Morgan County, Georgia, where the community’s water supply has turned turbid right after it was constructed. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) showed the muddy water to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Assistant. Administrator for Water Jessica Kramer during a congressional subcommittee hearing, asking if the office is looking into how data centers affect water quality across the nation. You can see the exchange in the embedded post below.AOC: This is what drinking water in Georgia looks like after Meta began data center construction in the community.— @acyn.bsky.social (@acyn.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-05-22T15:02:01.633Z“This is the current drinking water in Morgan County, Georgia, right after a data center was constructed, the Meta data center was constructed. The only difference between the clean water and this was that data center,” Rep. Ocasio-Cortez said during the hearing while showing the jars of dirty water. She also added, “These families now have to ship, in a rural area, have to ship water to their house in order to cook and bathe themselves. Now I'm curious if the EPA plans any investigations on how data centers are affecting water quality and availability. I understood what you said about the rule, but are there going to be any open investigations on this issue?”Kramer, for her part, said that she will investigate the issue as soon as she gets back to her office, saying, “It is a priority to ensure that water quality standards established by EPA are being met. And so, we'll be looking into that, certainly.”Latest Videos FromA video by More Perfect Union, a progressive media and advocacy group, on YouTube Shorts showed that the residents in this rural part of Georgia use private and community wells, taking water directly from under the ground. However, their only source of water has allegedly become undrinkable since the data center construction began, and they also pointed to a significant groundwater recharge area, where water from the surface collects underground. The county government protects these areas as surrounding communities rely on them as a water source, and the nearby areas must be managed to minimize the threat of pollution.It’s currently unclear what caused the water quality to drop in Morgan County. While it happened after the Meta data center construction began, correlation does not automatically equate to causation. One possibility is that the turbid water coming out of the wells of Morgan County residents is a sign that the water table is getting too low, and their pumps are now taking in water from the well bottom, where mud and sediment settle. When you combine that with reports of data centers using up a ton of water, then it is understandable that some in the community would blame the data center project for their water woes.This also isn’t the first time that a data center project has allegedly created a water supply issue. Another massive project located in Georgia has reportedly secretly siphoned off 29 million gallons of water in a year and three months, resulting in low water pressure for residents. There have also been many concerns about these sites driving higher electricity prices for large swathes of the U.S., as well as possibly cutting out the lights for an entire town. We’ve also seen noise complaints coming from these developments.All these issues have got many people complaining about these developments, with 7 out of 10 Americans now opposing data center developments near their homes. And even as AI tech companies and hyperscalers are pushing for more compute, more jurisdictions are passing data center bans all over the country.Stay On the Cutting Edge: Get the Tom's Hardware NewsletterGet Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors
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Jowi MoralesContributing WriterJowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.
15 Comments
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Related: TLDW: police might arrest you, if you complain and someone higher up the money chain doesn't like that you are cEQy2TiyUDs
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Its just mud agitated in the aquafer. If you use a well it will be muddy for a few months once they stop disturbing it. No biggie, perfectly safe to drink.
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Gururu said:Its just mud agitated in the aquafer. If you use a well it will be muddy for a few months once they stop disturbing it. No biggie, perfectly safe to drink.Yeah no biggie ... just "mineral enhanced water". No worse than Dasani! They won't need to keep taking their multivitamin now!
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. One possibility is that the turbid water coming out of the wells of Morgan County residents is a sign that the water table is getting too low, and their pumps are now taking in water from the well bottom, where mud and sediment settle. When you combine that with reports of data centers using up a ton of water, then it is understandable that some in the community would blame the data center project for their water woes. yes, however if it ONLY started after the center was running then it would STILL be the fault of the data center as they casued that to occur.
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It's ok everyone. I'm sure the Datacentre owners will investigate themselves and will find no issues here.
Regards.
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Gururu said:Its just mud agitated in the aquafer. If you use a well it will be muddy for a few months once they stop disturbing it. No biggie, perfectly safe to drink.If that is coming out of my kitchen sink , we have a problem.
Would YOU drink that? Would you give it to your 2 year old?
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Sad but really wouldn't be surprising. Meta/Zuck has been on my crap list since 2014 ish.
I hope the people of that area band together to protest and prevent construction and or get it fixed with compensation.
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I'm not going to hold my breath on Meta being held responsible. https://frinkiac.com/comic/img?b=AQIBBlMwNUUwMy5tAwABEvQBygNfR2VudGxlbWVuLCBJJ3ZlIGRlY2lkZWQKdGhlcmUgd2lsbCBiZSBubyBpbnZlc3RpZ2F0aW9uLgpOb3csIGlmIHlvdSdsbCBleGN1c2UgbWUsIEknbGwgZ28gYXdheS4A
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It depends on how old the water lines are.
If you use a large amount of water very quickly, causing a high flow rate, then it will agitate all of the sediment inside of the water pipes.
For example, if you live in an older city, e.g., NYC, and someone opens a fire hydrant fully for a few minutes, you will see that your water will be dirty for a day or 2. If a datacenter is using a closed loop liquid cooling system and they are going to fill a reservoir tank in order to process that water for the cooling system, they may fill that tank at a rate equivalent to multiple fire hydrants opened full blast for a while, and that will loosen a massive amount of sediment in the city waterlines.
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Gururu said:Its just mud agitated in the aquafer. If you use a well it will be muddy for a few months once they stop disturbing it. No biggie, perfectly safe to drink. Wow!! The amount of shillage in this post is big enough to fill an aquifer, muddy or not.
Why don't you drink, cook and bathe in such muddy water and get back to us in a few months with the "no biggie" results!
PS: I have a well and the water is never muddy, because people like your friend Zucky are not "disturbing" it.
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