In June, Republican Rep. Cliff Bentz of Oregon introduced H.R. 655, the Dalles Watershed Development Act, which would transfer ownership of approximately 150 acres of Mount Hood National Forest from the citizens of the United States to the City of The Dalles, Oregon.
The legislation would give the city sole control over the land’s water. (Aye, there’s the rub.)
City officials have repeatedly denied that this congressional transaction is related to Google, but the computing giant has a large data-center operation in The Dalles and consumes roughly a third of the City’s annual water supply.
The City cites population growth as the reason for increased water needs. The Dalles, population 16,000(ish), has grown by about 1,700 residents in 15 years, according to data from Portland State University.
Photo: The data center in The Dalles was Google’s first. The computing demands of artificial intelligence have fueled the rapid growth of data-center water consumption.
