Over the past couple of decades, the need for data centers has grown exponentially with the advent and proliferation of smartphones, cloud computing, and AI. Washington County has become one of Oregon’s data center hotspots thanks to its reliable electrical grid, temperate climate, and favorable tax exemptions. Demand for new data centers is high—more than 30 have been built in the county since around 2011—but the strain these businesses bring to the utility infrastructure and residents is significant.
Data centers consume enormous amounts of electricity and need a significant amount of water to function. In 2023, data centers consumed 11.4% of Oregon’s electricity, while in Hillsboro alone data centers demand as much electricity as nearly every residential customer in all of Washington County combined. Tualatin Riverkeepers is concerned with data centers’ electricity consumption because it is estimated that for every 1 mega watt-hour (MWh) of energy a data center consumes, 7.1 m3 of water is required, primarily to cool the computer systems. This means a midsized data center typically uses 300,000 gallons of water daily, while large-scale facilities can consume as much as 4.5 million gallons of water per day. When this water is returned to the wastewater management system it is often laden with chemicals, including PFAS, placing a burden on our utilities, who are passive receivers of these contaminants. An additional complication on our natural resources is that these massive data centers bring more impervious surfaces to our watershed. As a changing climate brings more severe storms, these surfaces can add stormwater runoff into our creeks and the Tualatin River.
As industrial land in Hillsboro continues to be swallowed up, developers have begun looking elsewhere in the county to build new data centers. The latest proposal is in Forest Grove, where two 184,000 square foot buildings are planned near Fernhill wetland. In response to permit requests to fill three wetlands on the proposed site, Tualatin Riverkeepers has joined forces with Willamette Riverkeeper to submit a comment to DEQ.
