In the Hermiston and Boardman area, there are more than seven active data centers owned and operated by Amazon Web Services. Last year, the city of Hermiston annexed 800 acres of land to AWS, paving the way for more in the future. And while some have shared concerns about the environmental impact these data centers have, they have brought their communities millions of dollars. For the city of Hermiston, Amazon’s operations have funded renovations to the library, a new city hall and most recently, a water treatment facility for Umatilla County.

Mark Morgan is the assistant city manager of Hermiston. He joins us to share the impact Amazon dollars have had on the community.

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News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/08/21/hermiston-data-centers-tol/