Curious about Eastern WA data center plan? Amazon offering open house

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is hosting a public open house on August 11 at Columbia High School in Burbank, Washington, to engage with residents and provide information about its proposed data center complex. The project, located at Wallula Gap Business Park southeast of Pasco in western Walla Walla County, involves building three single-story data centers on 134 acres, projected to cost nearly $5 billion and create 120 to 150 full-time jobs. This marks Amazon's first data center development in the Mid-Columbia region, having acquired 500 acres from the Port of Walla Walla in February 2024 for $32 million, initially under the alias "Advance Phase LLC".

AWS has submitted environmental review documents to Walla Walla County but received notice in June that its application was incomplete, specifically lacking a traffic impact analysis. Amazon states the traffic review is now complete and will be submitted after the open house, meeting the August 24 deadline. The company has also addressed common concerns in FAQs on the county's website, detailing that the complex will include storage tanks, a security building, an industrial water facility, and a power substation.

The Port of Walla Walla will supply water and treatment services for the complex, which AWS estimates will use 14 million gallons of water annually for cooling, primarily 7% of the time, noting this is less than a comparably sized irrigated farm. While the power source for Wallula Gap was not specified, AWS highlighted its significant investments in green energy, including a partnership with Energy Northwest on the Cascade Advanced Energy Facility. The article also notes that other developers like Atlas Agro North America, Trammel Crow Co., and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory/DOE are also targeting the Tri-Cities for data center development.