The Dalles
City in northern Oregon where Google's data-centre campus draws approximately 40% of the municipal water supply, with residents facing a projected 99% rise in water rates by 2036.
Last refreshed: 17 June 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Can The Dalles survive Google's water appetite as the city plans a fifth campus building?
Timeline for The Dalles
Google prices its water ahead of rules
Data Centres: Boom and BacklashBackground
The Dalles has become the sharpest illustration of what hyperscale data-centre expansion costs a small American city. Google's campus draws roughly 550 million gallons of water per year, about 40% of the city's total supply, and residents face a projected 99% rise in water rates by 2036 under a $260 million system upgrade needed to sustain that draw. The city is already eyeing the Hood River Basin to supply a proposed fifth Google building .
The Dalles is a small city of around 16,000 people on the Columbia River in northern Oregon, historically a trade hub. Google opened its first campus there in 2006, drawn by cheap hydroelectric power from the Bonneville Dam system and the dry, cold climate that reduces cooling loads. The campus has expanded through multiple phases and now anchors the local economy, but the water cost has risen with each phase.
Google's June 2026 water-stewardship pledge commits $17 million across seven US states and targets 19 billion gallons of annual replenishment by 2030. Infrastructure head Ben Townsend framed per-site reporting as a community blueprint. Critics note that aggregate replenishment figures net water returned across all basins: The Dalles loses 40% of its local supply at a single tap, and no amount of water returned to a different state reverses that .