Morrow County in Oregon is known for its large farms and food processing units. But over the last decade, it has also become home to several Amazon data centres. According to a report by Rolling Stone, experts and local residents now believe that a mix of farming waste and the heavy water usage of these data centres is pushing nitrate levels in drinking water to unsafe levels. The factor is possibly causing a rise in rare cancers and miscarriages, the report states.
A detailed investigation by Rolling Stone claims that nitrate levels in some wells in the Lower Umatilla Basin aquifer have reached 73 parts per million (ppm). This is 10 times Oregon’s limit of 7 ppm and seven times higher than the federal limit.
Amazon, on the other hand, has strongly denied that its data centres are one of the factors behind the contamination. Company spokesperson Lisa Levandowski told Rolling Stone that the report is “misleading and inaccurate,” and that the groundwater issues “significantly predate AWS’s presence” in the county.
How nitrates are entering water
The aquifer, which supplies drinking water to the region, has been under pressure for years because of wastewater from huge farms. Fertilisers used in agriculture contain nitrates, and over time, they seep into the soil and water.
According to Rolling Stone, Amazon’s arrival “supercharged this process.” The data centres pull tens of millions of gallons of groundwater each year to cool their servers. After cooling, the water is sent into the Port of Morrow’s wastewater system. According to Rolling Stone, “data centres suck up tens of millions of gallons of water from the aquifer each year to cool their computer equipment, which then gets funnelled to the Port’s wastewater system.”
This wastewater, already containing nitrates, is then sprayed onto nearby farms. But the soil in these areas is sandy and porous, meaning it cannot absorb all of it. As a result, even more nitrates sink back into the aquifer.
Amazon rejects the allegations
Amazon spokesperson Lisa Levandowski told Rolling Stone that the company uses and returns “only a very small fraction” of the area’s water supply, and that “nitrates are not an additive” used in its operations.
“The truth is that this region has long-documented groundwater quality challenges that significantly predate AWS’ presence, and federal, state, and local agencies have spent years working to address nitrates from agricultural fertilizer, manure, septic systems, and wastewater from food processing plants,” Levandoski told the magazine. She added, “our data centers draw water from the same supply as other community members; nitrates are not an additive we use in any of our processes, and the volume of water our facilities use and return represents only a very small fraction of the overall water system, not enough to have any meaningful impact on water quality.”
