Morrow County, Oregon is home to mega farms and food processing plants. But it is also home to several Amazon data centers. And now, some experts believe, this combination is leading to worryingly high concentrations of nitrates in drinking water that are increasing cancer and abortion rates in the area.
rolling stone The exposé details how Amazon, despite not using any dangerous nitrates to cool its data centers, is accelerating pollution of the Lower Umatilla Basin aquifer, which residents rely on for drinking water. It is a combination of poor waste water management, sandy soils and good old physics that has led to nitrate concentrations in drinking water reaching 73 ppm (parts per million) in some wells, which is 10 times and seven times the state limit of 7 ppm. federal border,
according to rolling stone“Experts say Amazon’s arrival has supercharged this process. Data centers draw millions of gallons of water from the aquifer each year to cool their computer equipment, which then gets Funneled into the port’s waste water systemThis results in excessive nitrate-rich waste water flowing into the fields in the area. But porous soils quickly become saturated and more nitrates enter the aquifer.
This is compounded when Amazon draws this contaminated water to cool its data centers, which already exceeds federal legal limits for nitrate:
When that contaminated water passes through data centers to absorb heat from server systems, some of the water evaporates, but the nitrates remain, increasing the concentrations. This means that when polluted water flows back into the wastewater system through data centers, it is even more contaminated, sometimes up to an average of 56 ppm, which is eight times higher than Oregon’s safety limit.
Of course, Amazon disputes this narrative. spokeswoman Lisa Lewandowski said rolling stone The story was “misleading and inaccurate” and that, “the amount of water used and returned by our facilities represents only a very small portion of the overall water system – not enough to have any meaningful impact on water quality.”
Lewandowski also said that the area’s groundwater problem “Long before the existence of AWS (Amazon Web Services).” However, if Amazon was aware of the region’s challenges in ensuring adequate safe drinking water for its residents, it begs the question why the company did not do more to reduce its impact Or why he chose Morrow County in the first place.
Increases in nitrate concentrations in drinking water have been linked to an increase in rare cancer And abortion. But efforts to limit further pollution and provide residents with safe, clean drinking water are progressing slowly. The limited scope of the response and the fact that 40 percent of the county’s residents live below the poverty line have drawn comparisons to the crisis in Flint, Michigan. Kristin Ostrom, executive director of the water rights advocacy group Oregon Rural Action (ORA), said rolling stone“These are people who have no political or economic power, and very little information about the risks.”
