Report: Ohio could be affected by data centers potentially linked to rare cancers and miscarriages
As central Ohio becomes a new Silicon Valley, many Ohioans are concerned about data centers powering artificial intelligence and cloud computing, which could hurt the local environment and the health of Ohioans.
A Nov. 24 investigation by Rolling Stone revealed that severe groundwater contamination in Morrow County, Oregon, where Amazon-operated data centers have been accused of worsening nitrate pollution in local aquifers.
According to the investigation, nitrate levels in many private wells in that area have soared far beyond federal safety limits, with tests showing concentrations up to seven times the allowable threshold.
As a result, local community centers reported clusters of miscarriages, rare cancers — such as lung cancer in non-smokers — and birth defects like children born with a single kidney.
Critics claim that the data centers’ massive water use for cooling, combined with wastewater disposal practices that concentrate nitrates before irrigation, release harmful chemicals into drinking water sources, allegedly affecting mostly low-income farmworker communities.
Ohio residents living in the central part of the country began sounding the alarm after the report was released. According to the Data Center Map, central Ohio is home to more than 133 data centers in the Columbus area alone, including dozens linked to Amazon. Statewide, there are 217 data centers, most located in the Columbus suburbs, including New Albany, Hilliard, and Dublin.
Even though a regional water study by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency identified preliminary correlations between areas with the poorest water quality and data center concentrations, officials noted that more data are needed to establish firm links.
Local communities, such as Washington Township, are now taking action, becoming the second in the region to impose a temporary moratorium on new data center development, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
On Dec. 8, Washington Township trustees unanimously voted 3-0 to enact a 90-day moratorium on data center construction in unincorporated areas of Franklin, Union, and Delaware counties.
Trustees are exploring an indefinite ban following legal review and are urging neighboring Dublin to adopt a similar measure. This follows a September moratorium in Jerome Township.
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology and the University of California, Riverside published separate studies estimating that air emissions from U.S. data centers—generated by power plants and backup generators—could cause as many as 1,300 premature deaths nationwide by 2030.
The researchers additionally projected that the pollutants will impose annual public health costs of nearly $20 billion, disproportionately burdening vulnerable populations with respiratory conditions.
An Amazon spokesperson, Lisa Levandowski, denied that the company is linked to health problems, calling the Oregon allegations “misleading and inaccurate.”
“Federal, state, and local agencies have spent years working to address nitrates from agricultural fertilizer, manure, septic systems, and wastewater from food processing plants,” she told Rolling Stone. “Our data centers draw water from the same supply as other community members. Nitrates are not an additive we use in any of our processes, and the volume of water our facilities use and return represents only a very small fraction of the overall water system.”
