Amazon Data Center Under Scrutiny After Reports of Rare Cancer Cluster

Today, a cell phone can do infinitely more than an old rotary. It’s a camera, calculator, photo album, TV, shopping mall, encyclopedia, and much more. The internet offers seemingly endless information about any topic you can think of. To an outsider, one small device seems to access an entire dimension that exists only on screens. However, data is much more tangible than that. It derives from a mass of computers, servers, storage systems, and equipment, which are housed in large facilities that require power and cooling systems to prevent the technology from overheating. As a result, data centers are criticized for their carbon footprint. Nearby communities report that the facilities are extremely loud, increase local energy costs, and cause electrical fires. Amazon data centers in Oregon, U.S., are being accused of a much worse crime: causing cancer.

How Amazon Data Centers May Be Worsening Local Water Quality

An exposé in Rolling Stone explains how Amazon data centers may be exacerbating the nitrate contamination in local drinking water. The Morrow County residents rely on the Lower Umatilla Basin aquifer for its supply of groundwater. Unfortunately, fertilizers, manure, wastewater, and septics have made the water chronically contaminated with nitrates.

Meanwhile, data centers use a lot of water to power and cool their systems, including water from this aquifer. The naturally sandy soil and poor wastewater management have resulted in nitrate concentrations as high as 73 ppm (parts per million) in some wells. That’s far past the state limit of 7 ppm and the federal limit of 10 ppm. 

Although the data center isn’t adding more nitrates, its overuse of the water system is expediting the problem. The facilities use “tens of millions of gallons of water from the aquifer each year to cool their computer equipment, which then gets funneled to the Port’s wastewater system,” according to the exposé. When the water is funneled through the centers’ cooling systems, some of it evaporates but leaves the nitrates behind. Then this nitrate-concentrated wastewater gets spouted to nearby farms, saturating the soil and bringing more nitrates into the aquifer. 

However, Amazon spokesperson Lisa Levandowski called this theory “misleading and inaccurate.” She told the Rolling Stones that “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.” Also, Levandowski points out that groundwater pollution was a problem long before the Amazon data centers were built in that area.

The Health Effects of Nitrate Contamination

Scientific research has well-documented the effects of consuming excess nitrates. The primary concern is acute acquired methemoglobinemia, which impairs blood cells’ ability to carry oxygen throughout the body. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Infants below the age of six months who drink water containing nitrate in excess of the MCL [Maximum Contaminant Level] could become seriously ill and, if untreated, may die. Symptoms include shortness of breath and blue-baby syndrome.” 

The National Cancer Institute cited studies showing increased risks of “colon, kidney, and stomach cancer among people with higher intake of water nitrate and higher meat intake compared with low intakes of both”. Plus, a 2018 review outlines potentially poor pregnancy outcomes due to the consumption of water high in nitrates. This included birth defects in the neural tube or central nervous system. It also delves into the research linking water with nitrates to thyroid diseases. Keep in mind, the authors conclude that “the number of studies of any one outcome was not large and there are still too few studies to allow firm conclusions about risk.”

Firm conclusions or not, the residents of Morrow County, Oregon, say they are enduring the effects of contaminated water. In the early 2010s, Jim Doherty, a former county commissioner, noticed an increase in unusual medical conditions among the 45,000-person population. He surveyed 70 wells in his jurisdiction, and 68 of them had nitrate levels above the federal limit.

How Much Water Does Amazon Data Centers Use?

The 2024 United States Data Center Energy Usage Report states that in 2014, data centers directly consumed about 21.2 billion liters of water. In 2023, data centers consumed 66 billion liters. It’s unclear how much of that is attributed to Amazon’s data centers, which total over 900 facilities in over 50 countries. Theirs are the largest in the world, even when compared to Google and Microsoft. Amazon is notoriously secretive about its data center water usage. The company’s website only says they’ve improved their “water use efficiency by 40% since 2021.” Meanwhile, Google and Microsoft regularly publicize their water consumption.

A leaked document to the Guardian claimed that Amazon (as a whole) used 10.5 billion gallons (39.7 billion liters) of water in total in 2021. That’s more than 95,000 US households use in a year. However, an Amazon spokesperson, Margaret Callahan, called the document “obsolete” and said it “completely misrepresents Amazon’s current water usage strategy. 

Without exact numbers, people can only speculate how much water Amazon data centers are using. And how much water the data centers in Morrow County are taking from the Lower Umatilla Basin aquifer. As a political leader, Doherty wasn’t focused on the water issue. Then he began hearing more stories about young women suffering miscarriages and middle-aged men having organ failure. After the water samples, Doherty and county health officials took an informal survey about nitrate-related health conditions. He said that within the first 30 homes they visited, they heard about 25 miscarriages and six people getting a kidney removed. “One man about 60 years old had his voice box taken out because of a cancer that only smokers get,” Doherty says, “but that guy hadn’t smoked a day of his life.”

Tax Breaks for Amazon Data Centers

Doherty and his co-commissioner, Melissa Lindsay, worked to garner governmental funds to help the locals with contaminated tap water. In 2022, their efforts led to the public declaration of a water emergency in Morrow County. They also spoke out against Gary Neal, general manager of the Port of Morrow, who oversaw massive industrial expansion in the area, including roads, irrigation systems, and business sites. Neal and his team had lobbied for tax incentives that benefit Amazon and negotiated deals for more data centers in the county. He was accused of prioritizing personal corporate growth over public concern.

By the end of 2022, Doherty and Lindsay were removed from their positions. Meanwhile, residents are grateful that they have raised awareness about the issue. Many had no idea until they took his suggestion to test their water and found nitrate levels exceeding federal limits. Kathy Mendoza was one of these residents. She retired in 2019 because of an inflammatory muscle and joint condition she believes came from nitrate contamination. “How can you live with yourself knowing that the water you put in people’s houses is causing miscarriages or cancer, or God only knows how it stunts the growth of a kid?” she says to the Rolling Stones. “How could they do that? Then these people go out and show their faces in public. And they’re still making money with it, every time those deals get cut for new data centers.”

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Continuing the Fight

The battle continued in February 2024 when Seattle attorney Steve Berman filed a federal suit against the Port of Morrow and other large operators for their role in the area’s water crisis. Berman, who represents six Morrow County residents, sent an RCRA Notice to Amazon, warning them of pending civil lawsuits, but the company took no action. When asked about the notice in the Rolling Stones interview, the spokesperson emphasized that the data centers do not add nitrates to the water supply and instead provide jobs and income to the community.

“It’s considered a basic civic right in the U.S. that the water you drink from your wells or that you get from your town should be clean and not contaminated,” Berman says. “And that right is currently being violated here… The people whose rights are being violated don’t have a lot of power, and the people responsible for the pollution are huge mega corporations with a lot of power. And they’ve been getting away with this for decades now.”

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