Resident after resident in a packed West Richland City Council chamber said they were troubled about what a data center could do to the community after a known data center developer, Trammel Crow Company, recently bought more than a thousand acres in the future Lewis & Clark Ranch development.

They shared concerns about noise pollution and that proposed federal legislation would block lawsuits against a data center developer that breaks federal environmental laws.

One citizen claimed Trammel Crow and its parent company CBRE are already facing millions of dollars in lawsuits for a slew of alleged violations for data centers on the east side of the country.

Multiple speakers called on the council to institute a moratorium or pause any proposed data center projects until the city’s comprehensive plan is completed and thorough regulatory safeguards can be implemented.

“West Richland residents are afraid for the quality of their lives based on these stories, whether truthful, accurate or erroneous,” West Richland resident Jerry Boggs said to council members on Sept. 15.

It’s a scene unfolding across the region as confirmed, proposed and rumored data center projects emerge. While some officials in Tri-City municipalities acknowledge there is a need for data infrastructure, they are being careful to hedge those remarks.

“Data centers have existed for many years and play an important role in maintaining modern infrastructure,” wrote Pasco Councilman Mark Figueroa in a statement read during a Sept. 8 public hearing on Pasco’s data center moratorium. “However, I would oppose hyperscale data centers because of the significant demands they place on limited community resources. Any future policy should protect Pasco’s long-term interests and ensure that proposed benefits justify the public resources required.”

Project pushback

So far, Amazon’s planned $5 billion data center at the Wallula Gap Business Park south of Burbank is the only confirmed data center project moving through regulatory and public review processes. It’s a project that Amazon and Port of Walla Walla officials have said will create hundreds of jobs and substantially bolster the county’s coffers through property taxes.

But that project is facing pushback from Walla Walla County residents and others who say it will have unacceptable environmental impacts, raise energy costs for residents and have other negative impacts. Opponents have campaigned against the project at Port of Walla Walla public meetings, as well as an August open house held by Amazon at Burbank’s Columbia High School.

Opponents continue to protest the project and look for ways to make Walla Walla County “unpalatable” to Amazon.

And it’s not just locally. More than 400 across the state in 19 locations took to the streets Oct. 4 to demand a statewide moratorium on data centers.

Richland residents have echoed similar concerns about data centers ever since Atlas Agro, which is planning to build a green fertilizer plant north of the city, proposed adding one to its project.

In June, the Richland City Council unanimously agreed to let the Swiss company pay for a transmission line that would connect with the data center. It was a decision that earned condemnation from multiple residents who attended the meeting when the decision was made.

“How can we risk our power and our water for a company with a zero track record? I don’t trust them, and neither should you,” one said. “They are promising less than 50 permanent jobs for a $500 million project. This is not a good deal for our community.”

Another speaker drew comparisons to the health risks of the Hanford site, saying “if you vote for this data center, you have betrayed everyone in this community.”

Heated debates

Now those same sometimes heated debates have made their way to Pasco and West Richland.

There are no known data center projects associated with Pasco at this time but the city did institute a moratorium on them in June, which is set to expire in December.

At the Sept. 8 hearing on the moratorium, residents urged the city to extend it or make it permanent, citing unanswered questions and conflicting reports about the effects of data centers.

“We need to be careful because while they might give us a lot of tax income that we can make and use, what (are) the ramifications?” said Pasco resident Natalie Williams.

City officials said they are prohibited from instituting a permanent ban on data centers. Some, such as Councilman Joe Cotta, noted that the city can put conditions on data center developers, such as securing their own power source, to mitigate impacts to residents.

“What I think is interesting and what I’ve looked into with data centers is a lot of it is contingent on the time the data center is built regarding what issues they have and how careful the cities were in holding the people who are creating the data centers accountable,” Cotta said, adding “and so there are things where if we hold them accountable, it works out.”

But council members also acknowledged that questions need to be answered and that the public needs to stay involved.

“You know, it’s great to see a full chamber tonight. It really is. We love to see this chamber full and community engagement. It’s your city,” said Pasco Mayor Charles Grimm. “But at the same time ... we need people to be involved, and it is a struggle. Not only this, but in school organizations and church organizations, it is a struggle to motivate people to action, to be involved.”

Amazon adjusts course

For its part, Amazon is adjusting course following staunch opposition to its efforts in Washington and Oregon.

The company committed to no longer using nondisclosure agreements while also better engaging with the public and making water and energy use commitments related to its data center development efforts in early October.

“While there is much (Amazon) (and other data center operators) are already doing,” and simultaneously rejecting some of the claims circulating about how such facilities impact water and energy, the company said its new transparency efforts are aimed at addressing the public’s apprehension.  

“There are clearly areas in which the technology and energy industries can be doing better (along with their government partners) but just like in the past when the country has banded together to accomplish something that’s critical for our national security and economic prosperity – we should approach this as a long-term mission that the private and public sectors pursue together,” said Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman in a blog post.

Among the elements of the new Amazon Data Center Commitment:

• Halting use of nondisclosure agreements, or NDAs, with government agencies on data center projects.
• Earlier public engagement and community open houses.
• Ensuring Amazon covers the costs of energy and infrastructure for its projects.
• Annual public reporting of data center water use and efficiency, energy use and efficiency, and carbon-free energy.
• More local hiring, procurement and community investment.

Public meeting transcripts transcribed by Hamlet API were used to report this story.