Officials in Wyoming said a contractor for Mark Zuckerberg’s tech company, Meta, flushed bacteria-contaminated water into public sewers during construction of a controversial new AI datacenter.

The incident prompted water authorities in Cheyenne to implement strict safety regulations on how wastewater from such projects is disposed of, according to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, which first reported the incident.

Meta has ordered its general contractor, Fortis, to cooperate with the Cheyenne board of public utilities (BOPU) to ensure there is no repeat, the newspaper said, insisting it wanted to be “a good neighbor”.

The company, however, noted that contamination by the rare but naturally occurring Cupriavidus gilardii bacterium did not affect drinking water supplies, and that its contractor’s own water testing by an independent environmental specialist found no trace of it.