Home | News | Water and Safety Risks Mount as Meta Builds Massive AI Facility in Louisiana

Water and Safety Risks Mount as Meta Builds Massive AI Facility in Louisiana

This custom-designed four million-square-foot campus will be Meta’s largest data center to date. It will play a vital role in accelerating Meta’s AI progress. (Photo: Meta)

By Steven Young

December 29, 2025
3:19 pm
Los Angeles, CA

RICHLAND, La. — Holly Ridge, a quiet town of fewer than 2,000 in northeast Louisiana, is grappling with a dramatic surge in traffic, safety risks, and infrastructure strain as construction continues on Meta’s $27 billion artificial intelligence data center, Hyperion. The massive facility, slated to become Meta’s largest worldwide, sits less than a mile from Holly Ridge Elementary School. Daily traffic from thousands of dump trucks and 18-wheelers has forced officials to close the school playground and disrupted classrooms, with students describing the constant rumble and vibration from trucks passing by. Traffic counts show how dramatically conditions have changed. In 2022, fewer than 2,000 vehicles passed the school daily. By July 2025, the number had jumped to more than 5,200—despite summer break. Crash records reveal at least 64 incidents

The massive facility, slated to become Meta’s largest worldwide, sits less than a mile from Holly Ridge Elementary School. Daily traffic from thousands of dump trucks and 18-wheelers has forced officials to close the school playground and disrupted classrooms, with students describing the constant rumble and vibration from trucks passing by.

Traffic counts show how dramatically conditions have changed. In 2022, fewer than 2,000 vehicles passed the school daily. By July 2025, the number had jumped to more than 5,200—despite summer break. Crash records reveal at least 64 incidents near the construction site between January and mid-September, compared with just nine in all of 2024. Some crashes involved unlicensed or fatigued drivers, and emergency crews were forced to land a medical helicopter behind the school after a dump truck collision. One driver was killed when his truck ran off the road.

Residents say the heavy traffic has made even simple tasks, like leaving their driveways or checking the mailbox, stressful. Trucks sometimes park on private property, and clouds of dust and dirt blow into homes. Newly installed speed limit signs have already been bent or ignored.

Beyond traffic and safety concerns, the Hyperion facility is drawing attention for its water use. Meta’s data center is projected to use about 23 million gallons of water per day, equivalent to the daily needs of roughly 17,000 residents, according to The Advocate. While the company estimates actual usage will be closer to 500 to 600 million gallons per year due to seasonal cooling needs, this still exceeds three times the water use of its previous most intensive data center.

The water is planned to come from the Mississippi River Alluvial Aquifer, which also serves local communities and farms. Meta intends to use a “closed-loop” cooling system to recycle water, but experts warn even that approach has limitations. The system requires significant electricity, and the new facility is expected to increase statewide energy demand by about 30%, meaning more water will be needed at the power plants that supply it.

“There’s no incentive for Meta to use less water because they don’t have to pay for it, and it’s not regulated or reported,” said Christopher Dalbom, director of the Tulane Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy.

Frank Tsairan, director of the Louisiana Water Resources Research Institute at LSU, conducted a 17-year simulation showing that if the data center withdrew the maximum daily allowed water, groundwater levels beneath parts of the site could drop by more than 65 feet—potentially causing land subsidence and saltwater intrusion.

State monitoring of industrial water use is limited. Meta is required to register new wells but not to report daily withdrawals. Environmental law experts say that as Louisiana encourages more large-scale data centers, the cumulative impact could strain the state’s resources.

Mark Davis, director of the Tulane Center for Environmental Law, cited Louisiana’s history of environmental damage from timbering, oil and gas canals, and abandoned wells as a warning. New projects are already moving forward: West Feliciana Parish updated plans for a $12 billion data center, while the Louisiana Public Service Commission passed a proposal allowing faster approval and construction of similar facilities.

Meta has pledged more than $200 million in infrastructure improvements and claims it is committed to sustainability and community engagement. State officials have echoed the company’s assurances. But for residents of Holly Ridge, the combined impacts of traffic, water concerns, and utility disruptions are already tangible—and likely to grow in the coming years before the data center is expected to be fully operational in 2030.

What was once a quiet rural crossroads has become a testing ground for how Louisiana balances economic development, environmental protection, and public safety in the rapidly growing artificial intelligence sector.

Source: WBRZ-TV and The Louisiana Illuminator