Oregon City Sues to Keep Google's Water Use Secret
THE DALLES, Ore. (AP) — The city of The Dalles, Oregon, has filed suit in an effort to keep Google’s water use a secret.
The move comes ahead of a key City Council vote on a $28.5 million water pact between the city and the tech giant.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports the city is seeking to overturn a ruling earlier from Wasco County’s district attorney, who found Google’s water use is a public record and ordered The Dalles to provide that information to the news organization.
The city sued on Oct. 28, asking a judge to intervene.
Google is contemplating two new server farms on the site of a former aluminum smelter in The Dalles, where it already has an enormous campus of data centers on its property along the Columbia River.
Google says it needs more water to cool its data centers, but neither the company nor the city will say how much more – only that The Dalles can’t meet Google’s needs without expanding its water system. The deal calls for Google to pay for the upgrade.
The proposed water pact has attracted scrutiny and skepticism in The Dalles, a riverfront city of about 15,000 approximately 80 miles east of Portland.
Residents and nearby farmers are concerned about the city’s water long-term water supply amid an ongoing drought. They complain they don’t know enough about Google’s actual water use.
The city is now going to court to keep that information under wraps, arguing it’s a Google “trade secret” exempt from disclosure under Oregon law.
Related News
From Archive
- 290-mile gas pipeline expansion proposed across Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina
- City of Albuquerque halts fiber optic construction in response to damage, complaints
- Body retrieved day after fatal trench collapse at Bakersfield, Calif., job site
- $227 million Garnet Valley water project advances, set to create 73,000 jobs in Nevada
- Pasadena, Calif., undergrounding project could take 500 years to finish
- Gehl and Mustang offer world’s largest skid loader
- Growing Pains and Gains
- Authorities investigating trench collapse that killed worker in Ashburn, Va.
- City of Albuquerque halts fiber optic construction in response to damage, complaints
- Pasadena, Calif., undergrounding project could take 500 years to finish
Comments