EPA Official Agrees to Review Data Center Impacts on Water (1)
Rankings & Awards<br>Research Tools
Log In<br>Sign Up For Newsletters
Environment & Energy
Listen PrintEmail
Share To:Facebook<br>LinkedIn
Related Stories<br>Data Center Boom Tested by Permitting Hurdles, Political Tension May 18, 2026, 8:30 AM UTC
EPA’s Zeldin Says Agency will Help Hyperscalers Cut Red Tape March 25, 2026, 8:17 PM UTC
AI Data Center Moratorium Introduced by Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez March 25, 2026, 11:00 AM UTC
Search by Topic<br>water quality standards<br>federal environmental legislation<br>social media<br>drinking water<br>metadata
An Environmental Protection Agency official said she would look into whether a massive Meta Inc. data center project contaminated drinking water in Morgan County, Ga., during a congressional hearing Wednesday.<br>Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) held up two jars of murky, brown drinking water she said were from the rural Georgia area she visited earlier this month. She then asked if the EPA “plans any investigations on how data centers are affecting water quality and availability.”<br>Jessica Kramer, an assistant administrator who leads the EPA’s water office, said she would review possible water quality issues that Ocasio-Cortes raised.<br>“I will be looking into exactly what you’ve just talked about, because anywhere, whatever type of construction it is, it is a priority to ensure the water quality standards established by EPA are being met,” Kramer said under oath. “So we will be looking into that, certainly.”<br>The Trump Administration has moved to fast track federal permits and environmental reviews for data centers under an executive order signed by President Donald Trump. EPA administrator Lee Zeldin has said he wants to help developers build more data centers needed for artificial intelligence.<br>Ocasio-Cortez’s questioning came after the representative introduced a bill with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to pause data center construction nationwide last month. During her visit to Morgan County she said residents told her they’re relying on bottled water, while home appliances stopped working after explosive blasts and tree clearing connected to the data center’s construction.<br>Meta Inc. publicly operates the Stanton Springs Data Center on the border of Newton County near Morgan.<br>“We work closely with water and wastewater utility companies to ensure there are no negative impacts from our data centers based on our water use,” Ryan Daniels, Meta Spokesperson, said in a statement. “When concerns were raised in Stanton Springs, we commissioned an independent groundwater study, which found that our data center operations and construction had no impact on the resident. All construction and operations water was fully sourced from the local water utility, not groundwater sources.”
(Updated with comment from Meta spokesperson in eight paragraph. A previous version of this story corrected the description of Jessica Kramer’s response to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.)
Learn more about Bloomberg Law or Log In to keep reading:<br>See Breaking News in Context<br>Bloomberg Law provides trusted coverage of current events enhanced with legal analysis.<br>Learn more
Already a subscriber?<br>Log in to keep reading or access research tools and resources.<br>Log In
© 2026 Bloomberg Industry Group, Inc.<br>All Rights Reserved
Sign Up For Newsletters<br>© 2026 Bloomberg Industry Group, Inc.<br>All Rights Reserved<br>© 2026 Bloomberg Industry Group, Inc.<br>All Rights Reserved