Evaporative towers on city water from the Columbia basin
Basis
Fitted to a published figure of 355 million gallons a year
Air — what the stacks emit
Nitrogen oxides85.0t/yr
Sulphur dioxide36.4t/yr
Fine particulates9.71t PM2.5
Health damages$7.36M/yr
Where it burns
WECC Northwest — Ore. / Wash.
Generation mix
Hydro 48 · Gas 22 · Wind 15 · Nuclear 6
CO₂e
159 kt/yr — climate, not air quality
Who wanted it
Who asked for it
Google — self-build
Who approved it
City of The Dalles enterprise-zone agreements; water supplied under a city contract that was kept confidential until a court ordered its release
What it serves
Google Search, Cloud, and long-term storage
IT capacity
180 MW running of 260 MW announced
The Oregonian sued the City of The Dalles for the water figures and won in 2022: the campus was using about 355 million gallons a year, roughly a quarter of the town's entire supply. It remains the clearest case of a municipality litigating on a data center's behalf to keep usage secret.
Water and air figures are modelled from disclosed capacity, not measured — site-level
error is roughly ±40%. Diesel backup generators are not counted, so on-site figures are floors.
Full method.