All across the country, communities are fighting to protect clean air and water, public lands, and wildlife from rapid and reckless expansion of corporate data centers. Communities are often forced to foot the bill for these destructive developments through higher local utility rates, massive tax subsidies, and reduced property values. This has been especially true in The Dalles, where Google and local politicians have fought to hide basic information on water use and tax subsidies from residents.
For a century, The Dalles has diverted a modest amount of water from the Dog River to provide drinking water for local residents. This stream is an important tributary of the Hood River that provides cold, clean water for salmon and other native fish. Back in 2018 and 2020, Oregon Wild and our colleagues at WaterWatch of Oregon voiced skepticism when The Dalles asked the Forest Service for permission to greatly expand a pipeline and pumping infrastructure. We were concerned that the expanded capacity could be used to divert more water to fuel data center growth, but the city convinced the Mount Hood National Forest that no such plans existed.
Fast forward to January of 2025, when conservation groups and Hood River Valley residents were surprised to learn that US Representative Cliff Bentz had introduced HR 655 in the US House of Representatives. By transferring 150 acres of America’s public lands to local politicians in The Dalles, the bill would allow a water storage reservoir to be tripled in size. Together with the massively expanded pipeline, this would radically reduce flows in the Dog River.
Reporting by The Oregonian newspaper found that in 2025 alone Google’s data centers in The Dalles consumed more than 550 million gallons of water–more than 40% of all the water used in the city. And it took a lawsuit to force Google and local politicians to even make that information public. HR 655 would make matters much, much worse by:
- Eliminating 150 acres of public land in the Mount Hood National Forest, permanently transferring land that belongs to all Americans to local politicians to benefit one of the world’s wealthiest corporations. It would set a dangerous precedent for future public land grabs across the country.
- Diverting more water from the Dog River, a vital source of cold, clean water for salmon and steelhead in the Hood River watershed. Five runs of fish listed as threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act rely on this watershed as a cold water refuge.
- Blocking environmental review. By legislatively transferring 150 acres of America’s public lands to local politicians, HR 655 ensures there will never be a meaningful evaluation of the costs and benefits of this project by the US Forest Service or other federal environmental agencies.
- Pass the costs on to the public. Expanded water diversions from the Dog River could force other Hood River Valley residents and the general public to mitigate the damage. It would also further inflate already skyrocketing utility costs for local residents.
Local politicians in The Dalles have denied that expanded water diversions from the Dog River would go to fuel further data center expansion. However, a review by Oregon Public Broadcasting found many of their claims factually inaccurate.
On the upside of this issue, Senator Ron Wyden has been asking some of the hard questions about the impacts of data centers.
HR 655 passed the US House of Representatives earlier this year, but has yet to advance in the Senate. Please take a few moments to contact Oregon’s US Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and urge them to oppose the Mount Hood Land Grab!
