Morrow County, Oregon, USA, was originally known as a large agricultural and food processing area. But in the latter The area is now home to many of Amazon’s data centers, and the tech and agriculture industries appear to coexist in the area. It is creating a serious environmental crisis. Experts and a Rolling Stone report reveal that Amazon’s operations may be fueling an alarming increase in nitrate contamination in drinking water. Leads to health risks both cancer and miscarriage And serious questions have been raised about the impact on the environment and the health of local people.
Amazon reports that no harmful nitrates are used in the process. But data center cooling systems are the catalyst that makes the situation worse.
This is because data centers pump tens of millions of gallons of water per year from aquifers to cool their servers. When water is used to absorb heat Part of the water will evaporate. But the nitrate does not evaporate. This causes the amount of nitrate remaining in the water to have a higher concentration. processed water which is concentrated with nitrates It is sent into wastewater treatment systems and is used on farms. However, because the sandy soil in the area is highly porous. This water then quickly flows back into the groundwater that villagers use for drinking.
As a result, nitrate concentrations as high as 73 ppm (parts per million) were found in some wells, 10 times higher than the state safety standard of just 7 ppm.
The more you treat it, the more contamination it becomes.
The concern is that Amazon often draws water that is already contaminated. (exceeds the federal standard) to be used and when going through the cooling process The released water will have even higher nitrate values. They averaged as high as 56 ppm at times, or eight times above Oregon’s safety limit.
When these highly concentrated wastewaters are released back into the ground, It will flow back into a source of raw water again. It becomes an ever-increasing cycle of contamination.
Impact on the population in the area
The increase in nitrates in drinking water is directly linked to the statistics of rare cancers. And the higher rate of miscarriages in the area has been compared to the contaminated water crisis in Flint, Michigan, where more than 40% of Morrow’s residents live below the poverty line.
Amazon is not complacent about the allegations. Company spokesperson Lisa Levandowski clarified that the report They called it “misleading and inaccurate,” citing two main reasons: The water Amazon uses and releases is a very small fraction of the water system as a whole. Not enough to have a significant impact And the groundwater problem in this area existed before AWS came to set up production base.
Even though Amazon insists that it is not the cause. But what society still wonders about is Where is the middle point between technological development and the health of people in the community? And what measures will the company have to deal with or remedy this impact?
