When Elon Musk brought xAI to Memphis, Tennessee, the company made a promise to locals worried that its data center would drain the local water supply: They would build a state-of-the-art water recycling plant, a national model for environmental best practices.

Two years later, Musk’s first data center dedicated to his AI chatbot is up and running, but construction has come to a screeching halt at the promised water recycling plant, designed to clean municipal wastewater for use in cooling the superpowered computing center.

The company announced it was stopping work on the water recycling plant in April, a month after its CEO touted it in a meeting with President Donald Trump. Now, Memphis residents are worried about their drinking water in an episode legal experts and scientists say is indicative of a broader pitfall of the data center boom.

“At the end of the day, if they are not required and don’t have any legal commitments to provide this, then it’s anyone’s guess if and when they will continue construction on this plant,” said Haley Gentry, assistant director at the Tulane Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy.

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