Since the construction of a Google data center in The Dalles, Oregon in 2006, the city has become a magnet for data centers looking for tax breaks, and cheap energy and water to power and cool them. Beginning in 2021, with representation from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Oregonian reporter Mike Rogoway fought a protracted legal battle to gain access to data on Google’s water use. As Rogoway reported in 2023, the data showed that “Google’s water use in The Dalles has nearly tripled in the past five years, and the company’s data centers now consume more than a quarter of all the water used in the city.” As data centers continue to multiply in The Dalles, spurred on by AI, we run an excerpt from a KPFK interview with Celilo Wy'am activist Lana Jack, produced by filmmaker Robert Lundahl and journalist Tracker Ginamarie Rangel Quinones for their show Creative Frontlines.
- KBOO