Agricultural wastewater is polluting Oregonian water supplies, and Amazon data centers are only making it worse, according to an exposé by Rolling Stone.
What's happening?
Over the course of the past few decades, Boardman, eastern Oregon, has enjoyed an agricultural boom thanks to investments in irrigation. Livestock wastewater would be pumped to the port, where it would be processed, then pumped back out to be sprayed in fields.
The problem is that the soil in the region is quite sandy. While some of the fertilizer would stay in the ground, much of it would sink right through to the aquifer. This would, in turn, pollute local well water with nitrates, a byproduct of chemical fertilizers. Residents drank this contaminated water for years, resulting in health risks ranging from miscarriages to cancer.
"The historical precedent here is Flint, Michigan," said Kristin Ostrom, executive director of Oregon Rural Action, according to Rolling Stone. "In part because of how slow the response to the crisis has been, and in part because of who's affected. These are people who have no political or economic power, and very little knowledge of the risk."
Part of the reason for slow action was due to the vested economic interest of port managers and commercial partners in continuing wastewater recycling despite nitrate levels in water supplies being up to 10 times higher than state limits.
The issue was further exacerbated when Amazon started building data centers in the region. These facilities were cooled using the contaminated water, which caused additional evaporation, leaving even higher concentrations of nitrates in the water it returned to the aquifer.
This situation was muddied even more by alleged insider deals that ranged from questionable conflicts of interest to downright corruption.
"They literally gave up taxpayer money for the sake of putting money into their own pockets. They knew from the get-go how big Amazon would become in Morrow County," said ex-commissioner Melissa Lindsay, according to Rolling Stone. "They knew it, they planned for it, and they watched it all happen. It's wild."
Why is aquifer pollution important?
Polluted water supplies pose immediate health risks to those who rely on them.
When combined with increasingly severe drought conditions, vulnerable populations may have few alternatives.
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Never 👎 What's being done about Oregon's water supply?
Following the news of the water contamination problem, residents have had to rely on bottled water shipments.
Some amount of justice may be on the way, however. A recent class-action lawsuit could hold key politicians and businesses accountable for the damage that has been done to an unsuspecting populace.
"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," said the lawyer leading the case, Steve Berman, according to Rolling Stone. "And that right is currently being violated here."
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