Hmmm...sounds more like the “water powers that be” probably knew this, possibly by design. Follow the money, see who is aiding this theft, see who designed and built the facility and which site plan zoning board members approved the plans and go from there. No way the “utility company” did not know about those magic pipes. Only when the local peons started to complain did it become an issue.
This isn't a story about some evil AI data farm. This is a story about an incompetent water utility.
From another article on the same story found here:
Vanessa Tigert, director of the Fayette County Water System, attributed the oversight to an administrative error that occurred during the county’s transition to smart meters.
“Fayette County is a suburb, it’s mostly residential, and we don’t have much commercial meters in our system anyway,” Tigert said. “And so we didn’t realize our connection point wasn’t working.”