Governor Orders DEQ to Pause New Data Center Permits
Governor Tina Kotek speaking to individuals at a Data Center Rally, September 2026. Photo Credit: ORA.
Pause Will Apply to Air and Water Pollution Permits Until After the 2027 Legislative Session
HERMISTON– Last week, amidst growing public opposition to data centers in Oregon, Governor Kotek directed the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to pause all new pollution permits for data centers until next July.
In a letter sent to DEQ on Friday, the Governor told DEQ Director Leah Feldon to use her authority to “pause processing and issuance of air or water discharge permit applications until July 1” for both new and expanding data centers. Pausing these permits would effectively put a hold on new data center developments until after the 2027 legislative session.
“We need action at the state level, so if DEQ follows through and stops permitting data centers, this would be a big deal,” said Hermiston resident Dawn Kennison-Kerrigan. “But so far, it is just promises. We need a data center moratorium until and unless rules are made to prevent pollution in the first place.”
Data centers are required to obtain permits from DEQ which allow the facilities to release certain amounts of pollution without having to pay fines. However, those permits have been increasingly criticized as failing to protect public health and the environment in the small towns and counties where data centers are rapidly expanding. Those concerns are particularly severe in Morrow & Umatilla Counties, which is already the largest hub for hyperscale data centers in Oregon and where some 75 percent of the state’s future data center expansion is expected.
Air pollution from data centers stems from the use of massive diesel generators for backup power. An Oregon Rural Action analysis of existing DEQ air quality permits showed that there are more than 1,600 of these generators already in use in Morrow & Umatilla Counties, with more on the way. Reporting by Oregon Public Broadcasting showed that data center expansion will have an “outsized threat to Eastern Oregon’s air quality” and public health, estimating that a one-hour power outage at the region’s data centers would result in more air pollution than 38,000 semi trucks running for the same amount of time.
“State regulators treat every data center as if its pollution exists in a vacuum,” said former Morrow County commissioner, Jim Doherty. “They completely ignore the cumulative impact. We have 21 data centers being stacked on top of existing industrial pollution, and the total toll on our community is simply not being considered.”
Data centers also impact water supplies in the high desert region, threatening both water quantity and quality. The hyperscale campuses in Morrow and Umatilla Counties use evaporative cooling technology, which uses massive amounts of water to cool computer servers during the intense summer heat when water is scarcest and in highest demand. Evaporative cooling also concentrates contaminants in the water, which some facilities then dispose of by spreading on farmland. Amazon recently agreed to pay $20.5 million to settle claims that it had worsened nitrate pollution in the area’s groundwater, which has already affected thousands of people.
Last month, Doherty and a group of Morrow and Umatilla County residents made the seven-hour round trip to Salem to urge lawmakers to pass a data center moratorium, joining hundreds of other Oregonians from across the state. They detailed firsthand accounts of how they’d been affected by runaway development, secrecy and nondisclosure agreements with public officials, loss of farmland, air and water pollution, and other data center impacts. By the end of the day, both Governor Kotek and gubernatorial candidate Christine Drazan had announced their support for a data center moratorium.
The newly announced pause on DEQ permits for data centers would freeze new development in its tracks; however, the letter appears to leave some discretion in the hands of DEQ Director Leah Feldon. Her first test will be the new Amazon hyperscale facility in Boardman known as “PDX 186,” which recently asked for an air pollution permit from the agency. That request is under review.
In recent months, local residents have sent dozens of public comments asking DEQ for an in-person hearing on the PDX 186 air quality permit, and 700 people have already signed a petition calling for a local and state moratorium on data center development in eastern Oregon.
The Governor’s pause would not change how DEQ issues those permits once the pause ends, nor does it address the harm being done by the data centers already built. For that, the Legislature will need to take action in 2027.
“This pause is badly needed, but it’s not a long term solution,” said Kaleb Lay, ORA director of policy and research. “It’s not enough to just pause DEQ permits without changing anything. This buys us time, and the Legislature needs to use that time to pass the laws that will stop the pollution, end the secrecy, protect our farmland, and hold these corporations accountable.”
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*Letter is only available in English