Environmental Justice
The Human Cost of Data Centers
Most people do not think about data centers very often, even though we rely on them everyday. They power cloud storage, artificial intelligenc, streaming, social media, educational tools, and almost everything we do online. While this technology is growing rapidly, many Oregon communities are begging to question what that growth is costing them.
With 157 operational data centers in Oregon, and counting, Its no wonder that many rual parts of Oregon are becoming increasnly concerned about how much water and electricity large data center require. The facilities, which puts additional strain on communities already experiencing drought conditions and limited water resources. For the farmers, ranchers, and families living in this area this is not just an environmental issue, it affects every part of their daily lives.
As data centers expand so does the concerts over energy use and the rising energy cost. Over the last five years oregon residence has have seen sharp rises in their power bills. According to Oregon Public Broadcasting (OBP) bills have skyrocketed, rising by almost 50% in the last five years. These increases are driven by the ever expanding data centers, particularly those fueled by artificial intelligence. Forcing everyday ratepayers to subsidize expensive grid infrastructure.
Water Contamination
In the Lower Umatilla Basin, the tap water can be unsafe to drink.
Across northern Morrow and Umatilla counties, an estimated 46,000 residents live above an aquifer contaminated with nitrates. The problem is decades old and mostly agricultural. State regulators trace about 70 percent of the contamination to irrigated farmland, with most of the rest from animal operations and food processing.
Data centers did not start this crisis, but they can make it worse. The facilities draw cooling water from the same aquifer, and as that water evaporates it concentrates the nitrates already in it. The leftover wastewater is then spread on nearby farmland, where it can leach back into the groundwater.
When one former county commissioner tested 70 wells himself, 68 came back over the federal safety limit, some at more than six times the level considered safe. Residents have reported clusters of cancers and miscarriages, and nitrate exposure is linked to serious health risks, especially for infants and pregnant women.
In 2026, Amazon agreed to pay more than $20.5 million to help affected homeowners reach cleaner water, settling its part of a lawsuit brought by residents.
Water Scarcity
In Central Oregon, data centers and a river draw from the same shrinking source.
Prineville sits in Crook County, one of the driest parts of the state. The data centers there pull from an aquifer connected to the Crooked River, and observation wells in the area have been dropping one to two feet a year.
The scale is hard to picture. In a single year, Meta's Prineville operation used about 117.5 million gallons of water, enough to fill roughly 178 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
To its credit, Meta has funded an aquifer recharge project that stores winter water for use in dry summers, and the city says its mitigation water exceeds what it pumps. The open question is whether those measures can keep pace as the campuses keep growing.
Energy Burden
Every Oregon household with an electric bill is helping pay for this growth.
Residential electricity rates in Oregon are now more than 50 percent higher than they were five years ago, more than double the rate of inflation, after a sixth straight year of increases approved by state regulators.
Regulators and utilities point to one main driver: surging demand from data centers. Over the past decade, household electricity use on Portland General Electric's system grew about 10 percent, while demand from the industrial class that includes data centers grew nearly 70 percent.
A small number of very large facilities are reshaping the grid, and around 1.5 million Oregon households are sharing the bill.
The Uneven Split
The benefits are global. The costs are local.
This is what makes data centers an environmental justice issue, not just an environmental one. The services these facilities power reach the entire world. The contaminated wells, the falling aquifers, and the rising bills stay in specific Oregon communities.
And those communities often have the least room to absorb it. A rural family on a private well. A fixed-income household is watching its power bill climb. A farming town competing with a tech campus for water. They did not choose this trade, but they are living with it.
What's Next?
None of this is settled, and that is the point.
Oregon is still deciding how data centers fit into its future. New state rules, a recent law aimed at making data centers pay for their own grid costs, and a growing coalition of rural and urban Oregonians are all part of that decision.
See what is being done → The POWER Act passed last year, ensuring that Data Centers and other large industrial energy users pay a tax increase. PGE recently announced that they are implementing a 29% tax increase for these industrial energy users and lowering their tax rates for residential and commercial customers. The Oregon Public Utility Commission must review and approve these newly proposed tax rates by July 7th.