Data Centers And Industrial Farming Are Fueling A Groundwater Crisis, with Kaleb Lay

Send us Fan MailWe talk with Kaleb Lay from Oregon Rural Action about how people living in a rural Oregon “sacrifice zone” end up with poisoned well water, and a widening wealth gap. We explore environmentalist claims that industrial farming, combined with a rapid build-out of Amazon data centers is compounding deadly nitrate contamination while communities fight for testing, transparency, and accountability. • what Oregon Rural Action does across immigration justice and pollution work in Northeast Oregon • why the Lower Umatilla Basin is described as a sacrifice zone • how industrial scale agriculture drives nitrate groundwater contamination • what nitrate does in the body, from blue baby syndrome to links with cancers and thyroid dysfunction • how door to door well testing exposed widespread unsafe drinking water after decades of state inaction • what retaliation can look like when organizers challenge powerful industries • what Amazon says about liability and what a $20.5M settlement does and does not change • why exascale projects raise alarms on water use, electricity demand, and rate impacts • how transparency gaps and inflated job numbers shape local decision making • why PFAS testing and disclosure matter for data center waste streams Kaleb Lay is a fifth-generation eastern Oregonian and former journalist who now serves as Director of Policy & Research with Oregon Rural Action, a nonprofit organization that works with frontline communities in rural northeast Oregon. He is a leading expert in pollution issues in Oregon’s Lower Umatilla Basin, which is both one of the most polluted places in the Pacific Northwest and one of the fastest-growing data center hubs in the United States. He’s also an avid outdoorsman, and gardenerIf you're enjoying this episode of Breaking Green, please subscribe or follow wherever you get your podcasts. Consider leaving a review and sharing it with friends and colleagues. You can find the full catalog of previous episodes and sign up to have future episodes delivered straight to your inbox at breakinggreen.org. To learn more about Global Justice Ecology Project, visit GlobalJusticeEcology.org. Breaking Green is made possible by tax-deductible donations by people like you. Please help us lift up the voices of those working to protect forest, defend human rights, and expose all solutions. Simply text GIVE to 716 257 4187. That's 1 716 257 4187. Support the show