MANSFIELD, GA — Just a few minutes off the highway in central Georgia, a quaint family property sits at the corner of a dead end street.
The Morrises, Beverly and Jeff, bought the property in 2016 where they now raise horses and have an above-ground pool off the deck. For the first two years in their home, not far from where Jeff grew up, they enjoyed the peace and quiet of the country while still having easy access to I-20, a corridor connecting them to Atlanta, about 50 miles northwest.
Then construction equipment appeared across the street.
Meta broke ground on the nearly 1,000-acre Stanton Springs Data Center in 2018 just 400 yards from the Morrises front door. During a visit to the home this week, a slight humming filled the air and a wall
of gray buildings peaked out from behind a thin tree line.
"There was no data center. We did not hear about a data center. The real estate agent did not mention a data center. The individual we bought the home from actually worked for the utility power company, and evidently he didn't know or he didn't mention it. So we didn't know anything until they started frying all the trees down the road here, and we still weren't sure what they were doing," Beverly Morris said.
The Morrises aren't opposed to new technology. They aren't even opposed to data centers, they told USA TODAY. But when the Stanton Springs center began operations, they stopped having clean water in their well. Their appliances started to break or fail. Their hot water heater could only spew scalding water, first noticed by their special needs son who lives at home. The couple drinks bottled water, boils any water they are using to cook and can only use one of their three bathrooms in the house.
That's why the Morrises, and their neighbors, are suing Meta.
'Breaks my heart,' Morris family navigates new normal
On Wednesday, California House Representative Ro Khanna stepped out of a vehicle in the Morrises driveway and greeted the couple in their garage, where they had set out examples of contaminated water from their system and from their neighbors' homes, maps detailing where the data center sat in proximity to their property and a used water filter that was near black with contamination.
The Morrises told Khanna they reached out to Meta and their local representatives soon after they started noticing their appliances like the washing machine fail, and when water coming out of their spigot was an off-brown color. It was only after a media team released a video about the issues that the family heard from Meta. The couple met with representatives from the company, who later sent a letter to the Morrises with results from an internal groundwater review.
"We hope this letter finds you well. As promised, we are reaching out to you with a summary of the findings from the review we commissioned regarding area groundwater and geologic conditions and the concerns you have raised regarding your property," the letter, dated June 30, 2025 and shared with USA TODAY, said. "On a personal note, we are sorry to hear about the issues you are experiencing with your well ... At Meta, we are committed to being good neighbors and contributing to the long term vitality of the communities where we operate. Please feel free to reach out to us if you have any further questions or concerns."
The internal study, conducted by Geosyntec Consultants, did not share any data with the Morrises but included summarized findings from Meta. The review found "that construction and operational activities at Meta's Stanton Springs Data Center Development are not likely to be the cause of issues experienced" at the Morrises home, according to the report.
Meta told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a statement that a study conducted by the company shows groundwater flows away from the plaintiff's properties and that water used for construction came from the local utility and not the source of the families' well water.
"While we are committed to being a good community partner, we will still defend ourselves from baseless lawsuits," Meta told the outlet.
The Morrises say despite the invitation to reach back out to Meta's representatives, they haven't heard back from the company in the year since the letter.
"It breaks my heart," Jeff Morris told Khanna. "When we first moved here, I used to brag about the drinking water."
He said he loves his home, but even if they tried to sell the property and move, the proximity to the data center has dropped their property value.
"And you know, there's not a connect in your mind when your water lines start clogging, or your washing machine goes out of this or that. Really, it doesn't connect it just keeps happening. I mean, you don't go through three washing machines in a matter of four years," Beverly Morris said. "We lived for two years with replacing parts in the toilets. It didn't work. It would last a little bit of time, but then it just got so stopped up that we only have one bathroom. We're just normal people, you know? We don't have a whole lot of money to just come in and start replacing everything."
What is the lawsuit against Meta?
At the beginning of September, the Morrises and a few other families who live along the edge of the data center property filed a lawsuit against Meta, alleging the company was directly responsible for their contaminated water and decreased home value.
"These are ordinary citizens. They're not seeking the limelight. They just want to have clean, safe, reliable water, a home infrastructure that is not fighting them, living without the fear of what's the next thing to fail on them, and so they ask Meta, at Meta's invitation, to sit down and reach out if they had any questions or concerns. They did that through their lawyer, and they waited weeks, months with no response," Christopher Bowers, an attorney representing the families, told USA TODAY during the site visit Wednesday. "They turned to the legal system, and we hope that the legal system process will play out, and they'll get the relief that they deserve."
The Meta Stanton Springs Data Center is described as a "colossal complex of buildings" with additional infrastructure that spans two campuses and stretches across three counties including Walton, Newton and Morgan, according to the lawsuit filed in Gwinnett County.
The west campus is 416 acres and the east campus is more than 566 acres, of which the plaintiff families are situated just across the street. All of the homes share the same aquifer system, according to the lawsuit, and their "onsite wells are now continuously impacted by silt and sediment contamination."
The families "rely exclusively on privately sourced domestic well water on their properties for their basic living activities, such as drinking, food preparation, washing dishes, showering, cleaning, operation of their toilets, irrigation, and maintaining and sustaining family pets, including horses, chickens, and dogs," according to the lawsuit.
Aside from "contaminated" water, the families say they have been experiencing noise and vibrations, excessive light and that their value of their properties have dropped dramatically since the construction of the data center.
"These are not the only families affected, not just in this community, but in other parts of Georgia and throughout the United States as we kind of reckon with these massive buildouts that seem to lack adequate safeguards," Bowers said.
What is the Data Center Bill of Rights?
Khanna is the second member of the House of Representatives to visit the Morris home, after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez came to see the family earlier this year. The representative collected a water sample from the home and brought it back to an EPA oversight hearing to ask for answers from the Trump Administration.
Khanna, however, is the author of the Data Center Bill of Rights, and sits on the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party as the nation is locked in a "race" with China for dominance in artificial intelligence. His California district also includes Silicon Valley.
"One of the arguments we keep hearing from these tech executives is well, we just have to keep building data centers. We have to keep developing AI because we're not going to be able to compete with China. And I wanted to understand what the impact is of what these people are doing. And I didn't want to just do it by reading accounts. I wanted to come and see firsthand," Khanna said when asked about the importance of visiting the Georgia families. "We can't treat people as dispensable in this country. That's not how we're going to win against China. We're going to win against China by modeling a democracy that respects the dignity of every person."
Khanna introduced the Data Center Bill of Rights to Congress in August as a way to "give Americans and local communities greater control over the construction and operation of AI data centers."
The resolution would ban the facilities from being within 2,500 feet of homes, schools, childcare facilities, hospitals or nursing homes, allow communities to reject proposed data centers, prevent increased electricity fees or rate hikes, put limits on noise and light pollution from the facilities, require data centers to disclose water consumption and would redistribute tax revenue from the facilities back to the community, among other regulations.
But that's just a starting point, Khanna said. The visit to the Morris home made the congressman think more could be done.
"My sense is we may need to be more than 2,500 feet. The legislation is 2,500 feet, but when you look at this, as close as it is, I think you probably need even a broader buffer, and then we're going to need some rights of people who live in communities where these data centers have already been built," Khanna said.
He called the resolution "forward-looking." After the visit, Khanna sent a letter to Meta, addressed to CEO Mark Zuckergerg, describing his visit and the frustration he heard from the Georgia family.
"I remain profoundly concerned by many technology companies' arguments that competing with China justifies bypassing the rights of those impacted by data centers. We can can compete without compromising our values," Khanna wrote in the letter shared with USA TODAY. "As such, I also request a briefing from Meta on how, if at all, it will be revising its process of selecting sites for data centers and incorporating community inputs based on its clear failure to do so in (Georgia)."
Georgia data center policy at center of midterm elections
The data center conversation has dominated the midterm election cycle in Georgia as candidates at the top of the ballot have been asked how to move forward in a state that has led data center development in recent years.
Keisha Lance Bottoms, the Democratic nominee for governor, supports a moratorium on any new development of data centers and said as governor she would bring together experts and stakeholders to evaluate how the state can move forward.
Her opponent, Republican Rick Jackson, has said he would fight for any communities that are opposed to data centers — and those communities that want one. He has been accused of holding investments in a Texas-based data center development company, an accusation Jackson has denied.
Jon Ossoff, running to keep his seat as one of Georgia's Democratic senators, called AI and data center development the "most complex and important legislative question of our time," during a recent debate appearance, and called for additional safeguards from both state and federal governments.
The Morrises live in Georgia's 10th congressional district and are represented by Mike Collins who is running against Ossoff for his senate seat. The families and their legal representation said they have tried to reach out to the congressman many times over the past four years, and have not had a visit from himself or his staff nor been contacted by his office. The Democratic representatives from New York and California are the only ones to reach out, so far. Repeated attempts to reach Collins' office throughout the campaign by USA TODAY have not been answered.
"We're in a race with China for AI. It's coming. It's already here… The problem is there's a lot of bad actors out there in anything that you have," Collins said during his debate with Ossoff earlier this week. "But before we even get there, we need to make sure that these data centers are not harming the local infrastructure, like the water and electricity."
Irene Wright covers Georgia politics as the Atlanta Connect reporter with USA TODAY’s Deep South Connect team. Find her on X @IreneEWright or email her at ismith@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Breaks my heart': Rep. Ro Khanna visits family taking on Meta in GA
