{"id":31760,"date":"2025-07-14T14:42:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T14:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=31760"},"modified":"2025-07-14T15:23:49","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T15:23:49","slug":"meta-built-a-data-center-next-door-the-neighbors-water-taps-went-dry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=31760","title":{"rendered":"Meta Built a Data Center Next Door. The Neighbors\u2019 Water Taps Went Dry."},"content":{"rendered":"
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After Meta<\/a> broke ground on a $750 million data center on the edge of Newton County, Ga., the water taps in Beverly and Jeff Morris\u2019s home went dry.<\/p>\n

The couple\u2019s house, which uses well water, is 1,000 feet from Meta\u2019s new data center. Months after construction began in 2018, the Morris\u2019s dishwasher, ice maker, washing machine and toilet all stopped working, said Beverly Morris, now 71. Within a year, the water pressure had slowed to a trickle. Soon, nothing came out of the bathroom and kitchen taps.<\/p>\n

Jeff Morris, 67, eventually traced the issues to the buildup of sediment in the water. He said he suspected the cause was Meta\u2019s construction, which could have added sediment to the groundwater and affected their well. The couple replaced most of their appliances in 2019, and then again in 2021 and 2024. Residue now gathers at the bottom of their backyard pool. The taps in one of their two bathrooms still do not work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Jeff and Beverly Morris.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cIt feels like we\u2019re fighting an unwinnable battle that we didn\u2019t sign up for,\u201d Ms. Morris, a retired payroll specialist, said, adding that she and her husband have spent $5,000 on their water problems and cannot afford the $25,000 to replace the well. \u201cI\u2019m scared to drink our own water.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Morris\u2019s experience is one of a growing number of water-related issues around Newton County, which is a 1.5-hour drive east of Atlanta and has a population of about 120,000 people. As tech giants like Meta build data centers in the area, local wells have been damaged, the cost of municipal water has soared and the county\u2019s water commission may face a shortage of the vital resource.<\/p>\n

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After Meta broke ground on a $750 million data center on the edge of Newton County, Ga., the water taps in Beverly and Jeff Morris\u2019s home went dry.The couple\u2019s house, which uses well water, is 1,000 feet from Meta\u2019s new data center. Months after construction began in 2018, the Morris\u2019s dishwasher, ice maker, washing machine and toilet all stopped working, said Beverly Morris, now 71. Within a year, the water pressure had slowed to a trickle. Soon, nothing came out of the bathroom and kitchen taps.Jeff Morris, 67, eventually traced the issues to the buildup of sediment in the water. He said he suspected the cause was Meta\u2019s construction, which could have added sediment to the groundwater and affected their well. The couple replaced most of their appliances in 2019, and then again in 2021 and 2024. Residue now gathers at the bottom of their backyard pool. The taps in one of their two bathrooms still do not work.Jeff and Beverly Morris.\u201cIt feels like we\u2019re fighting an unwinnable battle that we didn\u2019t sign up for,\u201d Ms. Morris, a retired payroll specialist, said, adding that she and her husband have spent $5,000 on their water problems and cannot afford the $25,000 to replace the well. \u201cI\u2019m scared to drink our own water.\u201dThe Morris\u2019s experience is one of a growing number of water-related issues around Newton County, which is a 1.5-hour drive east of Atlanta and has a population of about 120,000 people. As tech giants like Meta build data centers in the area, local wells have been damaged, the cost of municipal water has soared and the county\u2019s water commission may face a shortage of the vital resource.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31762,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31760"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31763,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31760\/revisions\/31763"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}