Amazon settles Oregon data center pollution lawsuit for $20.5m

BOARDMAN, Ore. – Amazon Data Services, Inc. settled for $20.5 million for a lawsuit related to nitrate pollution in eastern Oregon, according to community organizer organization Oregon Rural Action.

Oregon Rural Action said the settlement is a “first step,” but is still not enough. 

“This is a first step for people exposed to almost four decades of toxic drinking water, but it is not justice; it does not begin to meet the extent of the harm in this ongoing public health and environmental crisis,” Oregon Rural Action’s executive director Kristin Anderson Ostrom said.

Ostrom said that even as Amazon settled the lawsuit, it continued its efforts to build what would become Oregon’s largest data center. 

“This settlement comes even as Amazon moves forward to build Oregon’s first massive, ‘exascale’ data center, more than doubling its footprint in the polluted region,” Ostrum said. 

NonStop Local has reached out to Amazon for comment and will update the article if one is provided.

While Amazon Data Services, Inc. settled with its plaintiffs, several other companies are still engaged in a class action lawsuit, Pearson v Port of Morrow.