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The Health Crisis in Morrow County

• Rising Rare Conditions: Residents in the small community of 45,000 have reported a surge in bizarre medical issues, including miscarriages, kidney loss, and rare cancers in non-smokers.
• Toxic Water Supply: A survey of local wells found that 68 out of 70 violated federal safety limits for nitrates in drinking water.
• Physical Symptoms: Community members have reported excruciating joint and muscle conditions attributed to chronic nitrate exposure.

The Role of Data Centers and Industry

• “Supercharging” Contamination: While industrial megafarms initially saturated the soil with nitrate-laden fertilizers, the arrival of an Amazon data center in 2011 exacerbated the crisis.
• Massive Water Consumption: To cool computer chips, data centers require millions of gallons of water. By drawing heavily from local aquifers, the data center combined its own waste with agricultural runoff, tainting even the deepest water sources.
• Evaporative Concentration: The data center’s cooling process involves evaporation, which concentrates the toxins in the wastewater. Some water returned to the system contained nitrate levels eight times higher than the state’s safety limit.
• Amazon’s Rebuttal: A company spokesperson stated that Amazon does not add nitrates to its water and that its usage is a “very small fraction” of the overall system, having no meaningful impact on quality.

Social and Political Impact

• Vulnerable Populations: Activists compare the situation to Flint, Michigan, noting that the affected residents often lack the political and economic power to fight back against tech giants.
• Regulatory Lag: Critics argue that the government response has been dangerously slow, allowing corporations to continue profiting while local health declines.
• Economic Disparity: Residents expressed outrage that “deals get cut” for new data centers while the community suffers from life-altering illnesses and environmental degradation.