Amazon Data Center Under Scrutiny After Reports of Rare Cancer Cluster

Today, the mobile phone can do more than the old rotary. Camera, calculator, photo album, TV, shopping mall, encyclopedia, and much more. The Internet provides a seemingly endless amount of information on any topic you can think of. To an outsider, one small device seems to reach the full size that exists only on screens. However, the data is much more visible than that. It is based on a large number of computers, servers, storage systems, and equipment, placed in large areas that require energy 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 very noisy, increase electricity costs, and cause electrical fires. Amazon’s data centers in Oregon, US, are accused of the worst crime: causing cancer.

How Amazon Data Centers Can Harm Local Water Quality

An exposé in Rolling Stone explains how Amazon’s data centers can increase nitrate contamination in local drinking water. Residents of Morrow County rely on the aquifer in the Lower Umatilla Basin for their groundwater supply. Unfortunately, fertilizers, manure, sewage, and septics have made the water permanently contaminated with nitrates.

Meanwhile, data centers use a lot of water to power and cool their systems, including water from this aquifer. Naturally sandy soils and poor wastewater management have led to nitrate concentrations of up to 73 ppm (parts per million) in some sources. That far exceeded the state limit of 7 ppm and the federal limit of 10 ppm.

Although the data center does not add additional nitrates, its overuse of the water system accelerates the problem. Resources used “Tens of millions of liters of water come out of this aquifer each year to cool their computer equipment, and are then put into the harbor’s waste water system,” When the water is sent through the cooling systems of these facilities, some of it evaporates but leaves the nitrates behind. After that, this polluted water with nitrates flows to the nearby farms, fills the soil and brings more nitrates to the water.

However, Amazon spokeswoman Lisa Levandowski called the idea “misleading and inaccurate.” He told the Rolling Stones that “The volume of water used by our facilities and the return represents a very small part of the water system as a whole, it is not enough to have a noticeable impact on the water quality.” Also, Levandowski points out that groundwater contamination was a problem long before Amazon’s data centers were built in the area.

Health Effects of Nitrate Pollution

Scientific studies have well documented the effects of excessive nitrate consumption. The main concern is acute acquired methemoglobinemia, which impairs the ability of blood cells to carry oxygen throughout the body. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, “Children under six months of age drink water with nitrates that exceed the MCL [Maximum Contaminant Level] he may become seriously ill and, if untreated, die. Symptoms include shortness of breath and bacterial infection.

The National Cancer Institute pointed to studies showing increased risks “Colon, kidney, and stomach cancer among people with high water nitrate and high meat intakes compared with low intakes of both”. In addition, a 2018 review reveals possible adverse pregnancy outcomes due to consumption of water high in nitrates. These included birth defects of the neural tube or central nervous system. It also looks at research linking water and nitrates to thyroid disease. Remember, the authors concluded that “The number of studies for any one outcome was not large and there are still too few studies to allow firm conclusions about risk.”

Strong ends or not, residents of Morrow County, Oregon, say they are enduring the effects of contaminated water. In the early 2010s, Jim Doherty, a former county commissioner, saw an increase in rare medical conditions among 45,000 people. He tested 70 wells on his property, and 68 of them had nitrate levels above the federal limit.

How Much Water Are Amazon Data Centers Using?

The 2024 United States Data Center Energy Usage Report states that in 2014, data centers directly consumed 21.2 billion gallons of water. By 2023, data centers will consume 66 billion liters. It is unclear how much of that was created by Amazon’s data centers, which include more than 900 centers in more than 50 countries. Theirs is the biggest in the world, even compared to Google and Microsoft. Amazon is notoriously secretive about data center water usage. The company’s website simply says that they have upgraded “40% water efficiency by 2021.” Meanwhile, Google and Microsoft often publicize their water usage.

A leaked document to the Guardian said that Amazon (in total) uses 10.5 billion liters (39.7 billion liters) in total by 2021. That’s more than 95,000 US households use per year. However, a spokeswoman for Amazon, Margaret Callahan, called the document “It doesn’t work anymore” then he said “misrepresents Amazon’s current water strategy.

Without exact numbers, people can only guess how much water Amazon’s data centers use. And how much water do data centers in Morrow County draw from the aquifer in the Lower Umatilla Basin. As a political leader, Doherty was not focused on the water issue. Then he began to hear many stories about young women having 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 in the first 30 houses they visited, they heard that 25 had miscarriages and six had their kidneys removed. “One man about 60 years old had his voice box removed because of cancer that only smokers get,” Doherty says, “but that boy did not smoke a single day of his life.”

Tax Break for Amazon Data Centers

Doherty and her commissioner, Melissa Lindsay, worked to get federal funds to help local people with contaminated tap water. In 2022, their efforts led to a public declaration of a water emergency in Morrow County. They also spoke out against Gary Neal, the general manager of the Port of Morrow, who oversaw the expansion of industry in the area, including roads, irrigation systems, and business facilities. Neal and his team had asked for tax breaks that benefit Amazon and negotiated deals for more data centers in the region. He was accused of prioritizing personal business growth over social concerns.

At the end of 2022, Doherty and Lindsay were removed from their positions. Meanwhile, the residents are very grateful that they have raised awareness about this issue. Many didn’t know until they took his suggestion to test their water and found nitrate levels exceeding federal limits. Kathy Mendoza was one of these residents. He retired in 2019 due to inflammation of the muscles and joint conditions he believed to be from nitrate pollution. “How can you live knowing that the water you put in people’s homes causes miscarriages or cancer, or God knows how it cripples the child?” he said to the Rolling Stones. “How could they do that? Then these people come out and show their faces in front of people. And they’re still making money from it, every time those contracts are cut for new data centers. “

Read more: Amazon Eyes Robot Workforce: Leaks Suggest Plans to Replace Hundreds of Thousands of Workers

The fight continues

The battle continued in February 2024 when Seattle attorney Steve Berman filed a federal lawsuit against the Port of Morrow and other major operators for their role in the area’s water crisis. Berman, who represents six Morrow County residents, sent a RCRA Notice to Amazon, warning them of pending civil lawsuits, but the company did not act. When asked about the notice in a Rolling Stones interview, a spokesperson emphasized that data centers do not add nitrates to water and instead provide jobs and income to the community.

“It is considered a basic civil right in the US that the water you drink from your well or get from your city should be clean and unpolluted,” said Berman.And that right is being violated here right now… The people whose rights are being violated don’t have a lot of power, and the people who are responsible for the pollution are big corporations with a lot of power. And they have been ignoring this for decades.”

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