A landmark settlement agreement between Amazon and a group of Eastern Oregon residents today marks the first time the Big Tech company has pledged to pay damages related to public health threats allegedly exacerbated by the construction and operation of its data centers.
This $20.5 million announcement was revealed in a filing in US District Court in Pendleton filed by attorney Steve Berman, on behalf of six residents of Eastern Oregon whose firm is representing them in an ongoing class action lawsuit related to the contamination of the Lower Umatilla Basin. The district is the only source of drinking water for the approximately 45,000 residents who rely on well water in and around Morrow County. As reported in Rolling Stone in partnership with the Food & Environment Reporting Network in November, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality collected samples since 1991 that showed a steady increase in nitrates, a byproduct of chemical fertilizers used by large farms and food processing plants in the area.
Although the pollution was before the arrival of Amazon, experts say that the data centers raised it with the release of tens of millions of water, which is used to cool the server equipment, most of which ends up in the underground water system. That water accelerates the movement of nitrates in the soil and in the basin and contributes to the increase in the level of nitrates in the water. Scientists believe that even a small amount of nitrates can cause serious harm to the human body; they can cause debilitating conditions in newborns and have been linked to increased risks of cancer.
For its part, Amazon “denies each of Plaintiffs’ allegations of wrongful conduct and damages, including, without limitation, that ADS has contributed to any contamination of groundwater, surface water, or drinking water in [Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area],” according to the filing.[Amazon] enters into this Agreement to settle all claims of Plaintiffs and Class Members related to the LUBGWMA contamination … in order to avoid the burden and expense of litigation.
Amazon, which opened its first data center in Morrow County in 2011, now operates 13 such facilities in and around the basin, according to the filing.
The company is one of several defendants in the lawsuit, along with several large farms and dairy operators including Lamb Weston and Threemile Canyon Farms, as well as the local utility and the Port of Morrow, which oversees the county’s wastewater system. Amazon is the first party to reach a conclusion on the role its data centers can play in accelerating the basin’s pollution.
“The fault means that millions of liters of waste water are coming out [Amazon’s] data centers and operations of third parties in the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area (“LUBGWMA”) in Morrow and Umatilla Counties in Oregon contribute to nitrate contamination of groundwater in LUBGWMA,” states a notice that will be sent to eligible residents for remedial discharges, which are believed to contribute to groundwater, surface water, or surface water contamination. drink” in the pit.
As part of the settlement, which will need to be approved by the court after a hearing open to the public for comments, $20.5 million of Amazon will be allocated two basic funds for any resident of the Basin Under Area after covering the costs of lawyers. The first fund will cover private well projects that tap into the deeper, less polluted part of the aquifer for residents whose homes currently have drinking water with nitrate contamination above national safety limits. The second fund will underwrite public water management projects for the purification and distribution of clean water. A sum of $30,000 from the original settlement will also be set aside for one-time payments of $5,000 to the six plaintiffs for their efforts to reach a settlement.
Jim Doherty, a former county emergency commissioner, said: “I was hoping they would get at least north of $100 million in 2022 because of the pollution. “They can’t believe that the richest company in the world would pay for anything they didn’t do. [Amazon is] they do this because they can’t win, and because they know they are part of the problem.”
Kathy Mendoza, a resident who took early retirement in 2019, said: “It seems like a drop in the bucket, because of the weakening of the joints and muscles that she believes is caused by exposure to nitrates. That money doesn’t go that far when you consider how big the problem is.
In response to the allegations and related charges, an Amazon spokesperson said Rolling Stone: “Eastern Oregon residents have faced groundwater quality problems for decades – long before we opened our data centers. Federal, state, and local authorities have spent years working to address nitrates from agricultural fertilizers, manure, wastewater systems and wastewater from food processing plants in the area. We disagree with the allegations in the lawsuit, and we sought a resolution quickly because we were want to focus our time and resources on supporting the community rather than being challenged.
“We appreciate Amazon taking the first step to address the problem of nitrate pollution, but the work is far from over,” said Steve Berman, an attorney for the plaintiffs. “Parties involved in this problem have a responsibility to come forward to help solve these problems. This means we will continue to prosecute the main polluters – Port of Morrow, Lamb Weston, Madison Ranches, Threemile Canyon Farms, Portland General Electric, and Columbia River Processing.”
This article was produced in partnership with the Food & Environment Reporting Network, an independent, not-for-profit news organization.
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