A landmark class action settlement agreement between Amazon and a group of residents in Eastern Oregon today marks the first time a Big Tech company has committed to paying damages related to public health threats allegedly exacerbated by the construction and operation of its data centers.
The $20.5 million settlement was revealed in a filing in the U.S. District Court in Pendleton submitted by attorney Steve Berman, on behalf of six Eastern Oregon residents his firm represents in an ongoing class action lawsuit over the pollution of the Lower Umatilla Basin. The basin is the only source of drinking water for as many as 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, Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality has collected samples from the basin since 1991 that have shown a continual increase of nitrates, a byproduct of chemical fertilizers used by the mega farms and food processing plants in the area.
While the pollution predated Amazon’s arrival, experts say the data centers have supercharged it through the annual discharge of tens of millions of gallons of water, used to cool server equipment, much of which eventually reaches the groundwater system. That water accelerates the movement of existing nitrates through the soil and into the basin and contributes to an increase in the level of nitrate concentration in that water. Scientists believe that excess consumption of even a small amount of nitrates can do significant 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 and every one of the allegations of wrongful conduct and damages by Plaintiffs, including, without limitation, that ADS has contributed to any alleged contamination of groundwater, surface water, or drinking water in or around the [Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area],” according to the filing. “[Amazon] is entering into this Agreement to settle all claims by Plaintiffs and Settlement Class Members relating to alleged contamination of the LUBGWMA …solely to avoid the burdens 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 case, along with multiple large-scale farms and dairy operators including Lamb Weston and Threemile Canyon Farms, as well as a local utility and the Port of Morrow, which oversees the county’s wastewater system. Amazon is the first party to reach a settlement in the case for the role its data centers may play in accelerating the pollution of the basin.
“The lawsuit alleges that millions of gallons of wastewater from [Amazon’s] data centers and operations of other parties’ facilities in the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area (“LUBGWMA”) in Morrow and Umatilla Counties in Oregon contribute to nitrate pollution in the groundwater in the LUBGWMA,” says the notice that will be sent to residents eligible for the settlement. The deal would release Amazon from liability in connection with any facet of its data center operations, “including cooling water discharges, that is alleged to contribute to groundwater, surface water, or drinking water contamination” in the basin.
As part of the settlement, which will need to be approved by the court after a hearing open to the public for comment, Amazon’s $20.5 million will be allocated into two primary funds for any resident in the Basin Groundwater Area after covering attorney fees. The first fund will cover private well projects that tap into a deeper, less contaminated portion of the aquifer for residents whose homes currently have drinking water with nitrate contamination levels above state safety limits. The second fund will underwrite public water-system projects for the treatment and distribution of cleaner water. A block of $30,000 from the original settlement will also be set aside for $5,000 one-time payments to the six plaintiffs for their effort in achieving the settlement.
“I was hoping they’d settle for north of $100 million at least. Without real money going back to each person affected I don’t know if everyone’s going to keep their outrage to themselves. Not the folks who can’t let their grandkids drink out of the garden hose, or someone dealing with cancer or a miscarriage,” says Jim Doherty, a former county commissioner who spearheaded the effort to declare a public health emergency in Morrow County in 2022 because of the contamination. “They’re not going to buy into the idea that the richest company in the world would pay anything for something they didn’t do. [Amazon is] doing this because they can’t win, and because they know they’re part of the problem.”
“It seems like a drop in the bucket,” says Kathy Mendoza, a local resident who retired early, in 2019, because of a debilitating joint and muscle condition that she believes was caused by exposure to nitrates. “That money won’t go that far when you consider how vast that problem is.”
In response to the filing and related allegations, a spokesperson for Amazon tells Rolling Stone: “Communities in Eastern Oregon have faced groundwater quality issues for decades — long before we opened our data centers. Federal, state, and local regulators have been working for years to address nitrates from agricultural fertilizer, manure, septic systems, and wastewater from food processing plants in the area. Our data centers draw from the same water supply as other local residents, we don’t add nitrates to that water, and the water we return represents a very small fraction of the region’s overall system. We don’t agree with the allegations in the lawsuit, and we sought an early settlement because we wanted to focus our time and resources on supporting the community rather than on litigation. Creating an independently managed fund devoted to building water infrastructure made more sense—it directly benefits residents now. This fund will support projects ranging from public drinking water treatment infrastructure to improved private wells that can access cleaner water.”
“We appreciate Amazon taking the first step toward solving the nitrate pollution problem, but the work is far from over,” said Steve Berman, the plaintiffs’ attorney, in a statement. “The parties that contributed to this problem have a responsibility to come forward and help resolve these issues. That means we will continue to prosecute the case against the main polluters — the Port of Morrow, Lamb Weston, Madison Ranches, Threemile Canyon Farms, Portland General Electric, and Columbia River Processing.”
This article was produced in collaboration with the Food & Environment Reporting Network, an independent, nonprofit news organization.
