AWS Boardman Gar Swanson data center, Boardman, Oregon

Amazon Data Services' PDX109 data center, operating at 75242 Gar Swanson Road in Boardman, Morrow County, Oregon, draws 40 megawatts of power from its utility, Umatilla Electric Cooperative. Its diesel backup generators run under a state air quality permit that was due for renewal by August 1, 2026; no result has been published. In March 2026 Amazon agreed to pay $20.5 million, without admitting guilt, to settle its part of a lawsuit over nitrate-contaminated well water in the area.

The permit, issued August 27, 2021, allows 112 diesel emergency generators rated at about 266 megawatts combined, far more power than the site actually draws, and bars the generators from selling power to the grid. In 2023 Amazon told regulators the site was limited to 40 megawatts from the grid and asked to add about 24 megawatts of on-site fuel cells until transmission lines are upgraded, pointing to the planned Boardman to Hemingway line from Idaho.

Cooling water that evaporates at the site returns to farm fields more concentrated with nitrate that predates Amazon's arrival in the area, the Oregon Capital Chronicle reported. "Communities in Eastern Oregon have faced groundwater quality issues for decades, long before we opened our data centers," Amazon spokesperson Kylee Yonas said, denying the company caused the contamination. Plaintiff Michael Pearson, who learned in 2022 his well held more than four times the federal nitrate limit, said: "When we bought the place, they didn't say a darn thing about nitrate."

The lawsuit continues against the Port of Morrow and other defendants, including Lamb Weston, Threemile Canyon Farms and Portland General Electric, with plaintiffs seeking a state-backed cleanup and health monitoring program.