Daily Darwin

[{"type":"text","text":"Anticipating a few errant shots, Bob packed extra balls for the round...."}]

Darwin 5 17 24

Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>Daily Darwin: Friday, May 17, 2024 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Anticipating a few errant shots, Bob packed extra balls for the round....

Daily Darwin: Friday, May 17, 2024

 Anticipating a few errant shots, Bob packed extra balls for the round....

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's general assignment reporter, Clair McFarland.

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

Wyoming’s lone U.S. House representative is demanding answers from Mark Zuckerberg on a Cheyenne-area data center wastewater contamination incident that caused the city’s reuse system to shut down for months.

The Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities (BOPU) issued a public notice June 26 that laboratory staff identified a bacterium, Cupriavaidus gilardii, in a wastewater sampling.

The board on July 2 identified the source of the initial contamination as Goat System LLC — a Meta ​data center company in the development known as Project Cosmo.

That public announcement about the contamination came more than four months after the Meta contractor — which is building an $800 million data center in south Cheyenne — disrupted the city’s reclaimed wastewater system with the rare bacterial contaminant.

The board had revoked Goat Systems’ industrial discharge privileges for fill-and-flush operations, and Cheyenne’s reuse water system was taken offline.

U.S. House Rep. Harriet Hageman demanded answers in a Thursday letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

“Many are rightfully concerned about high water consumption rates by data centers in our communities where every drop of water is accounted for and needed,” wrote Hageman, “so I am even more concerned that this contamination seemingly came from your facility’s closed-loop cooling system, a technology that is marketed as being a solution to high data center water consumption rates.”

Hageman added that, “Many Wyomingites are also rightfully concerned that they learned about this contamination on June 26 and that the Meta Cheyenne facility was identified as the culprit on July 2nd, when the discharge privileges for Goat Systems was revoked on March 24th.”

New industries seeking to enter small-community Wyoming life can only do so with support from local communities, wrote Hageman, “which is earned built on trust, collaboration and communication with our citizens.

“I am deeply concerned that Meta did not follow this model in this instance.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"She poses five questions to Zuckerberg:"}]

• How did the contamination happen, including from the closed-loop cooling system — and had that happened elsewhere?

• When did the project companies and contractors learn of the issue and what steps did they take to alert the local, state and federal authorities and mitigate the threat?

• Where is the facility taking its wastewater now, and how will that prevent threats to Wyoming communities?

[{"type":"text","text":"• Does Meta plan community outreach on this incident?"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"• Can closed-loop cooling systems scale down water consumption safely?"}]

Hageman concluded, “Wyoming deserves information and consultation from the industries which plan to call our state home.”

A Meta spokesperson in a Thursday email reiterated the company's earlier statement on the contamination. 

"Meta is supporting the efforts of our general contractor, Fortis, to resolve this issue with the City of Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities," the statement says. "When the board shared that it found a substance in the city's wastewater — not public drinking water — Fortis immediately stopped discharging industrial wastewater and began hauling it offsite. Fortis also began its own water testing with an independent environmental specialist which has found no trace of the substance."

The statement concludes, "Meta is committed to being a good neighbor in Cheyenne, including through the protection of local water resources, and will continue encouraging collaboration between Fortis and the board until this situation is resolved.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Unpleasant Surprise'"}]

The delay between the contamination and making it public 

Cheyenne City Councilman Pete Laybourn told Cowboy State Daily last week that learning the contamination originated from Meta's data center was unwelcome news.

"It's a very, very unpleasant surprise," Laybourn said. "I have a lot yet to learn. It definitely complicates matters."

Laybourn said he has already expressed concerns about some of the arrangements the city has made with data center operators, adding that he expects the disclosure will prompt additional discussion.

"It's about the last thing we need right now," he said. "But it's a reality we're going to have to work through.”

"I think it's a disappointment to everyone involved," he told Cowboy State Daily.

Collins also praised the BOPU for catching the contamination and getting the city's sewage reuse system cleaned up. 

Hageman and Zuckerberg 7 9 26

<title>Hageman Demands Answers From Zuckerberg About Cheyenne Data Center Contamination | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Wyoming U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman in a Thursday letter is demanding answers from Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg about how its Cheyenne data center contaminated the city’s wastewater system. “I am deeply concerned,” she wrote.

Hageman Demands Answers From Zuckerberg About Cheyenne Data Center Contamination

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Courts

A Manderson, Wyoming, man and woman have been charged after the suspicious death of an infant in a case where investigators say a camper where the child lived was filthy, overheated, had no running water and was littered with human waste, animal feces and meth.

The investigation began just after 10 a.m. Monday, when agents with the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation were notified of the suspicious, unattended death of an infant.

By the time Special Agent Anthony Giles arrived at Three Rivers Hospital in Basin, the baby's mother — 22-year-old Destynie Study — had already told investigators what she said happened that morning.

A newly filed affidavit in the case available Thursday says Destynie fed and changed the infant around 1:30 a.m. before putting the baby back to sleep in a crib inside the family's camper in Manderson. 

She told investigators she woke around 9:45 a.m. and found the infant unresponsive.

She immediately grabbed the child, climbed into her father's vehicle and started driving toward Three Rivers Hospital, calling 911 along the way. 

The affidavit says the baby lived in the camper with the mother, her father Travis Study, and another child who is just over a year old.

At the hospital, investigators said dirt covered Destynie's arms, legs and clothing, and what appeared to be lice eggs or significant dandruff near her scalp. 

"An overwhelming smell of body odor, urine and feces was coming from her person and the room," Giles wrote.

Investigators also documented dirt beneath the infant's fingernails and that "the same odor was permeating from the deceased infant's body."

"The infant's diaper was completely saturated in urine," Giles wrote, along with a small amount of feces and a live, moving insect inside the diaper after it was removed. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"5-Gallon Bucket Of Human Waste"}]

Armed with a search warrant, DCI agents later searched the camper where the family had been living. Outside sat several black garbage bags investigators believed had recently been placed there.

When agents opened the door, they were hit with the same overwhelming odor of urine, feces and body odor they had encountered earlier at the hospital, wrote Giles. 

Investigators described the camper as being in "complete disarray,” the affidavit says.

Old and moldy food, empty food containers and trash littered nearly every corner. Clothing, wrappers and garbage were piled throughout the sleeping area, the affidavit continues. 

The bathroom emitted what investigators described as an extremely strong smell of feces.

[{"type":"text","text":"The camper itself also was stifling hot."}]

Investigators measured the interior temperature at about 95 degrees with an air conditioner that didn't work. 

There also was no running water connected to the camper, and the sewage system appeared to have been unusable for some time, the affidavit says. The shower and sinks showed signs they had not functioned for an extended period.

The affidavit says investigators also found dog feces and mouse droppings throughout the camper.

[{"type":"text","text":"Inside the bathroom sat a 5-gallon bucket nearly full of human waste."}]

The toilet also contained human waste and appeared abandoned, investigators wrote, with evidence of insect infestation.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Warning Signs "}]

The crib where Destynie told investigators the infant slept was damp and smelled strongly of urine.

Investigators found urine-soaked bedding, a soiled diaper beneath the mattress, and liquid pooled inside the crib's frame. When they lifted the crib, more foul-smelling liquid drained from its support structure, says the affidavit.

Fresh trash outside the camper allegedly discarded before law enforcement arrived contained baby food along with a comforter investigators believed was heavily soiled with urine and feces.

Court records note the conditions inside the camper had raised alarms months before the infant died.

The document outlines four separate contacts between the family, the Wyoming Department of Family Services and Manderson police dating back to early April.

On one visit, officials said they were denied entry while investigating concerns about the family's living conditions.

Another welfare check involved reports that Destynie had missed prenatal appointments during what investigators described as a high-risk pregnancy.

During another visit, a caseworker reported the family's Jeep smelled strongly of cat urine and was littered with debris.

By late May, DFS had received reports that the infant had lost 11% of its body weight and that Destynie had missed a medical appointment.

When caseworkers and officers returned to the property, investigators say they again were refused entry into the camper.

Travis told them to "get the f*** off his property and never come back," alleges the affidavit. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Normal Grandpa Stuff' "}]

Travis remained on speakerphone while investigators interviewed Destynie at the hospital.

When agents requested Destynie's cellphone to establish a timeline, he allegedly warned that if anyone with "a badge or a gun" came to his property, "it would be a bad day for that individual."

Both Travis and Destynie told investigators that Travis regularly cared for the children when Destynie left the residence. Travis reportedly described it as doing the "normal grandpa stuff."

[{"type":"text","text":"The search of the camper also turned up drugs."}]

Investigators say they recovered more than 21 grams of suspected marijuana, marijuana paraphernalia and a glass pipe containing white crystalline residue.

A swab collected from inside the pipe tested presumptively positive for meth and was submitted to the Wyoming State Crime Lab for confirmation.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Criminal Charges Filed"}]

Following the investigation, prosecutors filed criminal charges Wednesday in Big Horn County Circuit Court.

Travis Study, born in 1969, is charged with felony child endangerment alleging exposure to meth, along with misdemeanor counts of reckless endangering, child endangerment, possession of methamphetamine and possession of marijuana.

Destynie Study is charged with misdemeanor reckless endangering of a child and child endangerment. She pleaded not guilty Wednesday.

Big Horn County Attorney Marcia E. Bean filed a demand for a speedy trial the same day, and the court appointed counsel to represent Destynie. A pretrial conference is scheduled for Aug. 3.

The affidavit does not identify an official cause or manner of death for the infant, and the criminal complaint does not allege either defendant intentionally caused the child's death. The investigation is ongoing.

Manderson police and sign 7 9 26

<title>Big Horn Grandpa, Mom Charged After Baby Dies In 95-Degree Feces-Filled Trailer | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Big Horn County grandfather and mother have been charged after a baby died Monday in a 95-degree trailer filled with feces, garbage and a 5-gallon bucket of human waste. "The infant's diaper was completely saturated in urine,” an investigator says.

Big Horn Grandpa, Mom Charged After Baby Dies In 95-Degree Feces-Filled Trailer

Around Wyoming

The Wyoming Department of Health has confirmed three cases in 2026 of cyclosporiasis, or “explosive diarrhea”, according to Surveillance Epidemiologist Matt Peterson.

The illness is caused by the microscopic parasite 

, which commonly triggers profuse watery diarrhea, severe cramping, bloating, nausea, fatigue, loss of appetite, and weight loss.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

 says symptoms typically begin two days to two weeks after a person consumes contaminated food or water, making it difficult for many patients to remember exactly what they ate before becoming sick.

Two Wyoming patients likely contracted the parasite while traveling to countries where Cyclospora is endemic, Peterson told Cowboy State Daily.

[{"type":"text","text":"The third patient, however, had no history of international travel."}]

The department did not identify the locations of the affected individuals.

The CDC is investigating a growing number of Cyclospora infections across the United States while working with state health departments and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to identify the contaminated food responsible.

"At this time, we do not know if that case is related to any existing cluster or outbreak, but we are continuing to investigate the possibility," Peterson said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Weeks In The Bathroom"}]

Peterson said anyone experiencing prolonged watery diarrhea, especially if symptoms disappear and later return, should contact a physician and ask about testing.

Without treatment, cyclosporiasis can linger for weeks or even months, sometimes improving just enough to make people think they're recovering before roaring back with another round of illness.

Unlike viruses such as norovirus, Cyclospora generally does not spread directly from one sick person to another.

The CDC notes the parasite isn't infectious when it leaves a person's body. Instead, it must spend days to weeks maturing in the environment before it can infect someone else, making person-to-person transmission extremely uncommon.

Diagnosing the illness can also be challenging. Routine stool tests don't always detect Cyclospora, and physicians often must order specialized testing if they suspect the parasite.

[{"type":"text","text":"Nearly all U.S. infections are linked to contaminated food or water."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What's Causing It?"}]

Health officials still don't know exactly what's fueling this summer's outbreak.

Investigators with the CDC, FDA and state health departments are interviewing patients about everything they ate in the weeks before becoming ill, searching for common ingredients that could reveal the source. Because symptoms might not appear for up to two weeks, tracing the outbreak has proven especially difficult.

Past U.S. outbreaks have been linked to fresh produce, including cilantro, basil, raspberries, lettuce, mesclun greens and snow peas.

 washing produce helps remove dirt and many germs but might not completely remove Cyclospora. The parasite can cling tightly to fresh fruits and vegetables, making cooking the most effective way to eliminate it.

That makes Wyoming vulnerable even though the parasite isn't naturally found here.

"Because Cyclospora is not endemic here, imported fresh produce is always the most likely vehicle," Peterson said.

He said cooking food to an internal temperature of 158 degrees Fahrenheit will kill or inactivate the parasite. Choosing locally grown produce when available might also reduce the risk.

Peterson said Wyoming residents aren't insulated simply because they live far from major farming regions. Grocery stores across the state receive produce through the same national distribution networks that supply much of the country.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Significant Growth"}]

The Wyoming cases come as public health officials investigate what has become one of the country's most significant Cyclospora outbreaks in years.

While the CDC's most recent nationwide surveillance report documented 145 domestically acquired cases across 17 states through mid-June, the outbreak has grown rapidly. Michigan has reported nearly 1,000 illnesses, prompting state officials to describe it as the largest Cyclospora outbreak in the state's history. Ohio has also confirmed hundreds of cases as investigators continue searching for a common source.

Although the CDC has not yet linked every state to a single contaminated product, the scale of illnesses has made this one of the largest Cyclospora outbreaks the United States has experienced in recent years.

While the Wyoming Department of Health is still investigating whether the state's lone non-travel-related case is connected to the broader outbreak, Peterson emphasized that residents shouldn't panic.

Wyoming health-care providers are equipped to diagnose and report cyclosporiasis, and the department will continue working with the CDC to determine whether Wyoming's cases become linked to the national investigation.

If a contaminated food product tied to Wyoming is identified, public health officials say they will notify residents and coordinate guidance with the Wyoming Department of Agriculture.

Until then, health officials recommend washing fresh produce, cooking foods when appropriate, choosing locally grown produce when available and contacting a health-care provider if diarrhea lasts for days, returns after improving or is accompanied by significant weight loss.

Welcome sign and stool 7 8 26

<title>'Explosive Diarrhea' Parasite Reaches Wyoming As Health Officials Seek Source | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Wyoming has confirmed three cases of a parasite known for causing explosive weekslong diarrhea, cramping, bloating, nausea, fatigue, weight loss, and more. The likely source is imported fresh produce, Wyoming epidemiologist Matt Peterson says.

'Explosive Diarrhea' Parasite Reaches Wyoming As Health Officials Seek Source

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's business and tourism reporter, Renée Jean

Renée Jean

Energy

Project Jade, Wyoming’s largest data center, is now Project Tembo, and the company behind the 2.7-gigawatt facility is a mystery no longer.

The data center will be owned and operated by none other than Google, giving Cheyenne yet another of the world’s largest tech companies in what is fast becoming an emerging tech frontier. 

Cheyenne has hosted Microsoft data centers for the past decade or so and that company has announced plans for a major expansion on a 3,500-acre tract of land 

 it was joining the Wyoming fold with an $800 million, 715,000-square-foot data center campus on a 960-acre parcel in the High Plains Business Park. That project, recently making headlines because of 

 that showed up in Cheyenne’s wastewater system, is set to open as early as 2027. 

Google’s new facility likely isn’t the last large tech company to show up in Cheyenne. In addition to its 10 existing locations, Cheyenne has five more under construction and another nine in advanced stages of discussion, according to data from Cheyenne LEADS. 

LEADS has also had 36 data center companies or site selectors express interest in Cheyenne or Laramie County, plus another 30 “tire kickers” that made at least one exploratory call.

Prometheus Hyperscale, meanwhile, has said it’s talking with “name-brand” companies for one gigawatt-scale data center 

Google’s project, according to planning documents filed with Laramie County, will be a 716-acre campus 8 miles south of Cheyenne in the Switchgrass Industrial Park, formerly used for seasonal cattle grazing. It is surrounded by rural, agricultural private and state-owned lands, as well as a solar field. 

The nearest residence is .1 miles east of the project. Single-family residences are also located .5 miles north and 1.34 miles south of the location. All of them are “low-density,” Google said in its filing.

Deeds filed with the application identify the owners as the Lazy D Grazing Association and Boyd and Allison Meyer. 

The application outlines a project that includes four data center halls and an office hub, as well as logistics and network buildings and new access roads off U.S. 85, with a planned completion date of 2031. The size of each data center hall is not mentioned, other than to describe them as “large-scale” facilities designed to support “a large number of computer servers operating simultaneously, along with associated mechanical and electrical equipment” for high-density computer workloads.

Google’s data center facilities are being built by Jupiter Star Holdings, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Google. Jupiter Star Holdings is replacing Crusoe, which last month told Bloomberg it’d been asked to “pause” construction of Project Jade at the customer’s request. 

That initially led some to believe the huge data center project, which can scale to up to 10 gigawatts, had been put on hold.

Subsequent statements, however, made it clear the project 

. Crusoe actually had been asked to pack up and leave by the data center client, which was taking over construction of the facilities. 

Tallgrass Energy executives told Cowboy State Daily at the time the project was “full steam ahead” and they would still be building out and delivering a bring-your-own power generation hub for the data center client. The client, Tallgrass added then, had not changed, though they declined to confirm who was building such a large data center.

Black Hills Energy also put out a media statement at the time, saying the project was continuing. In a subsequent interview with Cowboy State Daily about how the company is handling 

 coming to its Cheyenne-area grid, the company confirmed it is a partner in the project. 

That suggests the project will eventually be connecting to the existing electrical grid and infrastructure, even though it has been touted as bringing its own power.

Google’s application says Tallgrass Energy will “combine energy resources from Black Hills Energy, fuel cells, and its power plant” to a substation that will serve power to the data center campus.

Wastewater treatment, meanwhile, will occur on site with evaporative lagoon storage. Connection to Cheyenne’s municipal wastewater system was not deemed cost-effective. 

All wastes will be handled in accordance with applicable local, state, and federal laws, the document goes on to say, and disturbed areas will be revegetated with native or adapted dry-land perennial vegetation. 

Traffic studies will also be conducted, and efforts will be made to minimize noise, wildlife impact, and visual impacts.

Most of the new details about the former Project Jade aren’t coming from press conferences and ribbon cuttings right now. They’re from a June 30 site-plan amendment, filed with Laramie County’s Planning and Development, along with a stack of other documents.

The site-plan overview filed with the amendment identifies Google in its first sentence, publicly revealing the company behind the former Project Jade for the first time.

Google, through Jupiter Star Holdings, has also sent out a required “adjacent neighbor” notice identifying a 32.83-acre area where an office support facility is planned. That was not part of Project Jade’s original conditional-use permit, the letter says.

A hearing has thus been set for the required permit at 3:30 p.m. Aug. 13 in the Laramie County Commission chambers. 

Comments on the matter are to be accepted through July 31, and may be emailed to 

Taken together, the January approvals for Project Jade and June’s amended filings for what’s now being called Project Tembo show that Wyoming’s biggest data center has quietly shifted from a Crusoe-branded campus with an unnamed “hyperscale” client to a Google-owned build advancing through Laramie County’s land use processes. 

That evolution is happening alongside other large-scale tech build-outs in Cheyenne, a city once known as the Magic City on the Plains for its seemingly overnight growth when the Union Pacific railroad arrived.

Some local observers, including longtime Cheyenne attorney and Councilman Larry Wolfe, have begun questioning whether data center and power planning are keeping pace with the speed and scale of these projects. 

It’s a debate that’s likely to grow as Tembo and other campuses continue to converge on Cheyenne’s new tech frontier.

Google 7 8 26

<title>Say Hello To Google, The Mystery Owner Behind Wyoming's Largest Data Center Project | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The 2.7-gigawatt data center once called Project Jade 8 miles south of Cheyenne has been unmasked as a massive Google campus. Google’s project, according to planning documents, will be a 716-acre campus in the Switchgrass Industrial Park.

Say Hello To Google, The Mystery Owner Behind Wyoming's Largest Data Center Project

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

Urapeein Porta Pots in Billings, Montana, expects to lose a few toilets every Independence Day.

Over the last week, at least 13 of the small company’s portable toilets were destroyed.  

[{"type":"text","text":"Even by their standards, that’s a massacre."}]

“We typically lose four to five toilets every year during the Fourth of July due to fireworks,” co-owner Kris Vogele said. “Some years, we’ve lost eight or nine. There have been at least 13 this year, and that’s worse than normal.”

Vogele estimates that damages are well over $12,000 and could easily get higher. All those costs will come out of the company’s porta-pot profits.

“People don't think about who this impacts,” he said. “They want to blow up a toilet for the laughs, but it’s definitely hurting people, and it hurts our community.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Blowin’ Up Toilets"}]

Vogele started getting calls about destroyed toilets last week. They lost their first one on Wednesday.

“It mostly has happened in residential construction projects in northwest Billings,” he said. “Subdivisions where not a lot of people are living yet, but a lot of new homes are being built.”

Vogele’s phone was ringing off the hook Monday, as contractors returning to work after the holiday weekend reported unusable toilets and their contents scattered across their job sites.

The only explanation for the extent and nature of the damage is fireworks. Big fireworks.

After several years in the portable toilet business with his son, Connor, Vogele knows to anticipate some lost toilets during the week of Independence Day. It’s the only time of year it seems to happen.

“It's pretty much whenever anybody has access to fireworks,” he said. “We’ve lost a couple around New Year’s, and we might lose a few more this weekend. If people have fireworks they didn’t set off last weekend, they might blow up a toilet this weekend.”

Most of the destroyed toilets were blown apart, but some were melted by the intense heat of whatever was inside.

“They light a fountain off on the floor of the toilet, and that usually melts or burns most of it,” Vogele said. “We've had one toilet that actually burned all the way to the ground. When we showed up for it, it was just a block of plastic on the ground.”

At this point, there are no culprits because there were no security cameras catching the toilet destroyers in the act. Vogele will have to swallow those costs.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Out-Of-State Ordnance?"}]

By this point, Vogele understands what kind of fireworks are needed to blow up a toilet. That’s why he believes they couldn’t have come from Billings or the surrounding area.

“These are not the type of fireworks you can buy at a fireworks stand in Montana,” he said. “If you saw one of our toilets that was really blown apart, it had to have been a large explosive.”

At least 13 portable toilets were blown up in Billings over the July 4 holiday and the company is blaming Wyoming fireworks for the destruction. They say the fireworks were likely purchased in Wyoming because Montana's fireworks aren't powerful enough.

Daily Darwin: Friday, May 17, 2024

In case you missed it

More in Daily Darwin

Daily Darwin: Friday, July 10, 2026

Daily Darwin: Thursday, July 9, 2026

Daily Darwin: Wednesday, July 8, 2026

Daily Darwin: Tuesday, July 7, 2026

Most read