Dec 01, 2025 12:00:00

Data centers may be increasing the incidence of cancer and miscarriage among local residents

Morrow County, Oregon, is home to several Amazon data centers, along with large farms and food processing plants. This combination has led to high levels of nitrates in the area's drinking water, which is driving up cancer and miscarriage rates, according to

Rolling Stone , a research paper by several experts.

How Oregon's Data Center Boom Is Creating a Water Crisis
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/data-center-water-pollution-amazon-oregon-1235466613/

Data centers in Oregon might be helping to drive an increase in cancer and miscarriages | The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/news/834151/amazon-data-centers-oregon-cancer-miscarriage

Amazon doesn't use dangerous nitrates to cool its data centers, but Rolling Stone points out that the data centers are accelerating the contamination of the Lower Umatilla Basin aquifer, which local residents rely on for drinking water. The contamination is linked to multiple factors, including poor wastewater management, sandy soils, and the laws of physics.

This water pollution has led to drinking water wells in some areas having nitrate levels as high as 73 ppm. The Oregon drinking water standard for nitrate levels is 7 ppm, while the federal standard is 10 ppm, so you can see how polluted the water is.

Data centers draw tens of millions of gallons of water from aquifers each year to cool their computer equipment. In May 2023, Amazon

announced it was developing a solution to recycle wastewater from its data centers in eastern Oregon. It said it would donate up to 96% of the wastewater to local farmers free of charge to help grow crops like corn, soybeans, and wheat.

Experts say that using wastewater for agriculture quickly saturated the porous soil, allowing more nitrates to flow into the aquifer.

'The problem is exacerbated by the fact that data centers are pumping contaminated water from the aquifer and reusing it to cool their server systems. This is because some of the contaminated water used to cool the servers evaporates, but the nitrates remain. This means that as Amazon pumps contaminated water and uses it to cool its data centers, the nitrate levels in the aquifer increase over time.'

Amazon disputed Rolling Stone's allegations, saying in a statement: 'The Rolling Stone report is misleading and inaccurate. The amount of water used and discharged at our facilities is a small fraction of the total water system and does not have a significant impact on water quality.'

Levandowski also pointed out that Oregon's groundwater problems existed before Amazon built a data center in the area .

In response, technology media The Verge pointed out, 'But if Amazon was aware of the challenges of ensuring sufficient safe drinking water for residents in the area, the question remains: why didn't the company take more measures to mitigate the impact? And why did it decide to build a data center in Morrow County in the first place?'

Furthermore, elevated levels of nitrates in drinking water have been linked to increased rates of cancer and miscarriage.