The Dalles sues to keep Google’s water use secret

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Ahead of a key city council vote on a $ 28.5 million water pact with Google, the city of The Dalles filed a lawsuit in state court on Friday in an attempt to keep its water use secret from part of the tech giant.

The city is trying to overturn a ruling earlier this month from the Wasco County District Attorney, who found that Google’s water use is a public document and ordered The Dalles to provide that information to The Oregonian / OregonLive. The city filed a lawsuit against the news agency on Friday, seeking the intervention of a judge.

Google is contemplating two new server farms on the site of a former aluminum smelter in The Dalles, where it already has a huge data center campus on its Columbia River property.

Google says it needs more water to cool its data centers, but neither the company nor the city will say how much more – only The Dalles can’t meet Google’s needs without expanding its water system. The agreement requires Google to pay for the upgrade.

Even so, the proposed water pact has attracted scrutiny and skepticism in The Dalles, a city on the river about 15,000 about 80 miles east of Portland.

Nearby residents and farmers are concerned about the city’s long-term water supply amid an ongoing drought. They complain that they don’t know enough about Google’s actual water use.

The city is now going to court to keep this information under wraps, claiming it is a Google “trade secret” exempt from disclosure under Oregon law.

Regardless of how the city’s lawsuit turns out, the dispute won’t be resolved before the city council votes on Google’s water deal on the evening of November 8. This means that the public will not have access to that information, although city council members do.

“It seems rather inconvenient to negotiate with someone who can simply claim trade secrets on all of their businesses, who is known only to some of you but not the rest of us,” Dalles resident Bruce Schwartz told city council at a meeting. on the water deal last month.

Both The Dalles and Wasco County signed a new property tax break package for Google this month. The new deal is a much better financial deal for local governments than the previous three deals, which have saved Google more than $ 240 million since it opened its first data center in The Dalles 15 years ago.

Google employs around 200 people at The Dalles. The new deal could increase property tax collections by several million dollars a year, but it should still save Google tens of millions of dollars over the 15-year life of the tax breaks.

However, it doesn’t appear that Google can proceed without more water.

So The Dalles and the tech giant came up with a plan for Google to spend $ 28.5 million to expand the city’s water capacity. The pact provides for the transfer of part of Google’s water rights to the city and the restoration of the large aquifer under the city with treated water during the rainy months.

The Dalles says Google will only use a portion of the additional water capacity, providing the city with more water for its residents and industry. Amid a prolonged drought, however, residents and farmers have expressed concern that the deal could strain the city’s water supply rather than increase it.

And they get irritated by Google’s secrecy about water use.

In its legal filing on Friday, The Dalles argues that Google’s use of water constitutes a “trade secret” exempt from public records law under Oregon law. The city said a nondisclosure agreement with Google prohibits it from disclosing that information and is seeking reimbursement for legal fees associated with the public records dispute.

“Under Oregon state law, what Google has filed and asked the city to maintain confidentiality is a valid trade secret and therefore we are obligated to keep it confidential,” Jonathan Kara, attorney for The Dalles, said at a meeting. of the city council last month. .

Oregon / OregonLive appealed the city’s decision to withhold Google’s water use records. In letters to the Wasco County District Attorney, the news agency argued that there was a strong public interest in disclosing Google’s water use and that the city nondisclosure agreement specifically exempted information such as the use of water, which are collected by the city – not provided by Google.

On October 15, Wasco County District Attorney Matthew Ellis ruled in favor of the news organization, concluding that the use of water falls outside the definition of an Oregon trade secret. He ordered The Dalles to release the records.

State law allows The Dalles to try to block that ruling by suing the news organization, which is what the city did on Friday.

“Google’s attempt to disguise the use of a vital community resource, water, is irreconcilable with the requirements of Oregon’s public records law. Oregonians are entitled to this important information, ”said Ellen Osoinach, staff attorney for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, who represents The Oregonian / OregonLive in the case.

The committee bears the legal costs of prosecuting Google’s water records. If The Dalles loses the lawsuit, however, he may be forced to pay the attorney fees associated with the lawsuit.

Other Oregon jurisdictions regularly disclose their industrial customers’ water use. Hillsboro, for example, reveals how much water Intel uses at its chip factories, and Prineville reports how much water Apple’s data centers use there.

In other states where Google operates data centers, those facilities’ water use has gone public in the context of litigation or disclosure of public records.

Last month, The Dalles city councilor Darcy Long-Curtiss expressed concern about the lack of information available on Google’s water use. Later, she said, city staff allowed her to view information about Google’s water use and future needs that aren’t publicly available.

Long-Curtiss said she is now ready to back the water deal because she has been able to see the numbers for herself. While the general public can’t see the same information, he said he supports the city’s move to keep the information secret if Google considers it a trade secret.

“I feel it only needs to be revealed to city council members who vote yes or no,” Long-Curtiss said. “I’m fine with that.”

The fight against water at The Dalles echoes Nestlé’s controversial plan to bottle spring water in nearby Cascade Locks. Hood River voters overwhelmingly opposed that plan in 2016, but the Cascade Locks City Council tried to proceed anyway. Governor Kate Brown eventually stepped in and shut down the Nestlé plant.

Conversely, there has been little organized opposition to Google’s growing thirst for The Dalles. But residents, farmers, and environmentalists have all expressed concern over data center tolls on Oregon’s resources.

“It is interesting that we are moving in the direction of hosting the Internet in one of the driest places in the West when these data centers need so much water,” said John DeVoe, executive director of WaterWatch, which promotes river health by trying to balance private and public inquiries on Oregon’s waterways.

The Dalles’ pending deal with Google points to problems in regional water management, DeVoe said, as water constraints are straining endangered species and exploiting local wells homeowners depend on. rural.

“These companies know they can get a great deal, in terms of tax breaks, electricity and water, by positioning themselves in our region. I think that says something about our region, “DeVoe said.” We’re not getting many jobs from these things. We’re giving the farm away for too low a price. “

At The Dalles, water rights have been a problem dating back to the 1950s. At the time, the city’s aquifer was heavily used by farmers in the region and an aluminum smelter operating on a property that now belongs to Google.

Oregon designated The Dalles a “critical groundwater area” in 1959 and began diverting water from the Columbia River to nearby farms through a new irrigation district. This stabilized the main aquifer, according to the city, which says the aquifer began a robust recovery after the foundry closed in the 1980s.

“People remember that there was a time when this aquifer was in severe decline. But that was … largely related to the amount of irrigation that was occurring, “said Dave Anderson, the city’s director of public works.

Even now, however, The Dalles’ water system capacity is limited to around 10 million gallons per day, and the city says demand is growing regardless of Google’s expansion.

The deal with Google would expand The Dalles’ capacity to 15 million gallons per day by ceding some of the company’s groundwater rights to the city and pumping treated water into the aquifer. State law limits subsequent withdrawals to 90% of what is put into the water table.

While The Dalles won’t say how much water Google wants, the city says the additional 5 million gallons per day of capacity would meet the company’s needs and leave an unspecified additional amount available for general public use.

“The amount of water that we are receiving in both water rights and new production capacities are both larger quantities than required for the new development,” Anderson said. “The city is ahead of it in terms of water supply.”

In public gatherings and heated discussions on Facebook, residents have been concerned about the region’s wider water supply. Years of droughts are putting a strain on farms and wells on rural properties near The Dalles, they say, and people living in or near the city are expressing concerns about entrusting Google with water.

One problem, they say, is that the boundaries of the main aquifer are not clearly defined. At a city council meeting last month, The Dalles resident Benjamin Damm said he was concerned about the water available for a rural property he owned, despite the city’s assurances about the health of the main aquifer.

“We should be fine, but if that were to decrease, and how that could affect groundwater which are outliers, is a big concern. So what happens if the aquifer decreases and hits people in the suburbs? “He asked damn.” Is there any recourse? “

The Dalles sought to understand such problems through three Google-funded studies of the city’s water system, according to Anderson, which provided a clear understanding of the aquifer’s capacity even though they did not provide firm information about its boundaries.

Regardless of whether water is scarce or plentiful in future years, Anderson said the city will have more water available to its residents under the Google deal than if it proceeded without it.

“We don’t expect there to be any losers in this scenario,” he said.

– Mike Rogoway | [email protected] | Twitter: @rogoway |

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