AWS data centers' water use tied to spike in cancer and miscarriages in Oregon

Ok I don’t know a lot about water purification, but playing the devil’s advocate: isn’t it the responsibility of the water purifiers to get rid of nitrates and ensure the drinking water stays within legal limits?

Or is it somehow a very difficult / impossible process to do this?

Re: AWS data centers' water use tied to spike in cancer and miscarriages in Oregon

#6

Post by palindome » Mon, Dec 01, 2025, 11:03 AM UTC

This article states that wastewater from the center contains nitrates at 56 ppm, but the local wells are testing above 70 ppm. It also targets the vector of contamination as being from percolation to groundwater from water treatment plants, which I'm guessing only a fraction of wastewater has the ability to leak through.

This feels incredibly disingenuous, or at the least, incredibly poor journalism.

Re: AWS data centers' water use tied to spike in cancer and miscarriages in Oregon

#7

Post by u12 » Mon, Dec 01, 2025, 11:18 AM UTC

palindome wrote: post #6

This article states that wastewater from the center contains nitrates at 56 ppm, but the local wells are testing above 70 ppm. It also targets the vector of contamination as being from percolation to groundwater from water treatment plants, which I'm guessing only a fraction of wastewater has the ability to leak through. This feels incredibly disingenuous, or at the least, incredibly poor journalism.

The original piece by rolling stone describes Amazon's role:

- Experts say Amazon’s arrival supercharged this process. The data centers suck up 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. All of the data center water gets mixed into the dirty lagoon wastewater, which only increases how much water the Port must then discard over the fields. As Greg Pettit, who served at the DEQ for 38 years and led the development of Oregon’s Groundwater Quality, explains, “the more water you put on, the faster you’re going to drive the nitrogen through the soil and down into the aquifer.” -

Re: AWS data centers' water use tied to spike in cancer and miscarriages in Oregon

#8

Post by samwolff » Mon, Dec 01, 2025, 11:26 AM UTC

palindome wrote: post #6

This article states that wastewater from the center contains nitrates at 56 ppm, but the local wells are testing above 70 ppm. It also targets the vector of contamination as being from percolation to groundwater from water treatment plants, which I'm guessing only a fraction of wastewater has the ability to leak through. This feels incredibly disingenuous, or at the least, incredibly poor journalism.

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Re: AWS data centers' water use tied to spike in cancer and miscarriages in Oregon

#9

Post by dkh » Mon, Dec 01, 2025, 11:30 AM UTC

stingraycharles wrote: post #5

Ok I don’t know a lot about water purification, but playing the devil’s advocate: isn’t it the responsibility of the water purifiers to get rid of nitrates and ensure the drinking water stays within legal limits? Or is it somehow a very difficult / impossible process to do this?

Not sure, but we know that it is definitely not AWS’ job to pollute it

Re: AWS data centers' water use tied to spike in cancer and miscarriages in Oregon

#10

Post by api » Mon, Dec 01, 2025, 11:30 AM UTC

I’m a dummy: why do data centers have to consume water again?

I have both computers and air conditioning and neither consume water.

I’m assuming of course that evaporation cooling is cheaper and consumes less energy than closed cycle cooling with a forced air heat sink.