How Oregon’s data center boom is supercharging a water crisis
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A joint investigation by Rolling Stone and the Food and Environment Reporting Network reveals that Amazon’s rapid data center expansion in eastern Oregon is exacerbating a severe public health emergency, drawing stark comparisons to the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. The report details how the tech giant’s massive facilities in Morrow County pump groundwater—already tainted by agricultural fertilizer runoff—to cool the servers powering its cloud computing empire. As the water evaporates during the cooling process, the nitrate pollutants remain and concentrate, resulting in a wastewater byproduct that is significantly more toxic than the original source.
Instead of treating this hazardous discharge, the investigation found that Amazon disposes of the nitrate-rich fluid by spraying it onto nearby farmland, effectively recycling the intensified pollutants back into the region’s vulnerable groundwater supply. This practice has created a dangerous feedback loop in the Lower Umatilla Basin, where the aquifer serves as the primary drinking water source for approximately 45,000 residents. Environmental experts and local advocates warn that this industrial cycle turns already compromised water into a chemical stew, pushing nitrate levels well beyond federal safety limits and threatening the community with increased risks of cancer, thyroid dysfunction, and "blue baby syndrome."
The situation has galvanized a legal and public outcry, with critics arguing that state regulators have abdicated their duty to protect rural citizens in favor of accommodating the tech sector’s insatiable demand for resources. Attorneys representing the affected residents describe the scenario as a systemic failure of oversight, asserting that the "precedent is Flint" regarding the government's willingness to ignore signs of mass poisoning. As the data center boom continues to supercharge the region's water crisis, the original piece underscores the tension between the digital economy's infrastructure needs and the basic human right to clean drinking water.
