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7/31/2025
Sarah Thiessen
 Got water questions? Give us a call at 877-52-WATER (877-529-2837), or email us at info@wtga.us
Thursday, July 31 2025 10:30 am EDT
Life Downstream from Big Tech
After Meta began construction on a $750 million data center in Newton County, Georgia, local residents like Beverly and Jeff Morris began experiencing severe disruptions to their well water. Living just 1,000 feet from the facility, the Morrises saw their water pressure drop dramatically within months of construction starting in 2018, eventually losing water access altogether. They’ve spent thousands replacing appliances and managing sediment buildup, which they suspect was caused by the construction process disturbing the groundwater. Despite multiple attempts to resolve the issue, including a visit from a Meta representative, the couple continues to deal with limited water access and growing expenses, with no accountability accepted by the company.
Their experience highlights broader concerns about the environmental toll of large data centers, especially their massive water consumption for cooling systems. Facilities like Meta’s can use up to 500,000 gallons of water a day, a number expected to increase significantly as artificial intelligence demands grow. In Newton County, this strain is pushing the area toward a projected water deficit by 2030, with water rates expected to spike by 33% in just two years. While tech companies benefit from tax incentives and access to cheap power, local infrastructure is struggling to keep up. Officials are racing to expand water recycling systems, but concerns remain about the long-term sustainability of hosting such water-intensive developments, especially in areas with limited natural water resources.
For more Georgia Drinking Water Facility Profiles, click here.
Drinking Water Facility Profile: Newton County Water - Sewerage Authority
EPA Status: No violations identified
Owner: local government
Location: Anderson Acres, GA
County: Newton
Watershed: Ocmulgee
Active Permit:GA2170004
System Type: community water system
Activity Date: March 12, 1980
Population Served: 74364 residential customers through 26832 connections
Source: From the 2024 Annual Water Quality Report " We purchase treated water for drinking and potable uses from the Newton County Board of Commissioners, who own and operate Cornish Creek WTP/Lake Varner Water Supply System including an 820-acre drinking water and recreational reservoir containing approximately 4 Billion Gallons. The Alcovy River is the source water for Newton County. Raw water is diverted from the river and pumped to Lake Varner
and one smaller reservoir. Located on the Lake Varner
Reservoir site, the award-winning Cornish Creek WTP filters and disinfects up to 25 Million Gallons per Day, transforming the source water into clean, safe drinking water for nearly 110,000 citizens in Newton County."
Contact: John David Reid, tel 770-385-3940
EPA SDWA Compliance Inspection: Sanitary survey, complete April 11, 2022 (State)
No Deficiencies or Recommendations
The following information gathered from federal EPA pertains to the quarter ending March 31, 2025(data last refreshed on EPA database July 22, 2025)
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Non-compliant inspections
(of the previous 12 quarters)
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with Significant Violations
(of the previous 12 quarters)
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Informal
Enforcement Actions
(last 5 yrs)
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Formal
Enforcement Actions
(last 5 years)
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0 out of 12
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0 out of 12
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Violations and Non-Compliance History
*Note that drinking water information provided on this site is aggregated from the federal EPA database, state resources and local government sources where available.
EPA publishes violation and enforcement data quarterly, based on the inspection reports of the previous quarter. Water systems, states and EPA take up to three months to verify this data is accurate and complete.
Specific questions about your local water supply should be directed to the facility.
The EPA safe drinking water facilities data available to the public presents what is known to the government based upon the most recently available information for more than one million regulated facilities. EPA and states inspect a percentage of facilities each year, but many facilities, particularly smaller ones, may not have received a recent inspection. It is possible that facilities do have violations that have not yet been discovered, thus are shown as compliant in the system.
EPA cannot positively state that facilities without violations shown in ECHO are necessarily fully compliant with environmental laws. Additionally, some violations at smaller facilities do not need to be reported from the states to EPA. If ECHO shows a recent inspection and the facility is shown with no violations identified, users of the ECHO site can be more confident that the facility is in compliance with federal programs.
The compliance status of smaller facilities that have not had recent inspections or review by EPA or the states may be unknown or only available via state data systems.
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