AI's Water Bill: The Data Center Backlash Is Here

City officials in Cheyenne, Wyoming, identified Cupriavidus gilardii, a rare metal-resistant bacterium, in their reclaimed water system. The contamination was traced to wastewater discharges from Meta's $800 million data center campus via Goat Systems LLC. Separately, AI agent costs often exceed model budgets due to external tool usage. Expenses from API calls, database writes, and notification services create unpredictable billing curves, especially when agents loop or retry operations across multiple third-party vendors.