ATLANTA — The federal Environmental Protection Agency is promising to look into reports of dirty well water in the area around a new data center along the Newton-Morgan County lines.
There’s a massive Meta data center in the area, and neighbors say their well water is muddy and unusable.
The people next door say it comes and goes.
Channel 2 Action News flew NewsDrone 2 over the rural Morgan County neighborhood that borders the new massive data center.
Channel 2’s Richard Elliot walked door-to-door talking with people about their concerns, especially New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who said she came to the neighborhood and got mason jars of what she said was dirty well water.
This is what drinking water in Georgia looks like after Meta began data center construction in the community.
— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@RepAOC) May 21, 2026
Today I called for EPA and Congressional investigations into the impact of data center construction on local drinking water supplies.
We cannot take water for granted. pic.twitter.com/jQlaJ0TXFV
“A few weeks ago, while Congress was in recess, I visited Morgan County, Georgia,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
She also said she wants answers from the EPA.
“I have another one as well. So, this wasn’t just one well. This wasn’t one family’s situation. This is what the drinking water looks like next to that data center,” she said while holding a jar full of dirty, brown-colored water.
In a statement, Meta said it had commissioned a groundwater study, which found that our data center operations and construction had no impact on the residents.”
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Meta does take about 102,000 gallons of Newton County water a day -- about 2% of the county’s water usage -- but in a closed system.
“Well water, you know, it got muddy when it rained some but not like it does now,” neighbor Victor Chafin said.
Sometimes, he said, his water is perfectly fine, but other times, he said it’s not.
He lives close to the Meta data center but can’t say his problems are due to MKta.
“I mean, it just gets muddier even in the littlest rain now. And by that, I mean, it’s terrible, too,” Chafin said.
Elliot spoke to one homeowner who said it kind of comes and goes. Another across the street from Chafin said his well water is fine.
The EPA, though, promised to investigate.it
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