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uring a congressional hearing, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez held up jars of discolored water while questioning the Environmental Protection Agency about concerns over water safety near data center developments.
Families living near the Stanton Springs industrial area, where data center construction has expanded rapidly, reported experiencing cloudy well water and significantly reduced water pressure.
According to residents, the situation has become so severe that some households now rely on bottled water delivered to their homes for everyday needs such as cooking and bathing. Following the hearing, the EPA contacted state and local regulators to gather information but stated that it has not opened a formal investigation.
Meta, which operates a nearby data center campus, denied that its facilities are responsible for the reported water issues. The company cited an independent study concluding that its construction and operations were highly unlikely to affect nearby private wells. Meta also said its facilities obtain water exclusively from a local utility rather than private groundwater sources.
The dispute highlights an ongoing concern for many rural communities: private wells are not covered by the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. As a result, homeowners are responsible for maintaining and testing their own water supplies, even as large, water-intensive industrial projects continue to expand nearby.

The sun contains 99.8 percent of all the mass in our solar system. Every planet, moon, asteroid, and comet you have ever heard of makes up the remaining 0.2 percent. It is 1.4 million kilometres across. If it were completely hollow, you could drop 1.3 million Earths inside of it. We do not just share space with a star. We live in the minor debris field of a single, massive plasma furnace.