Public comments on EWEB rates, data centers, safe water for food gardens

Presenter: Public comments Sept. 8 urged Eugene’s Water and Electric Board to set rules for data centers, provide relief for low-income ratepayers, and to provide fish passage at the Trail Bridge Dam. Kathy Ging starts us off with a plea to preserve clean water, which we need to grow food in our community gardens:

Kathy Ging: I’m worried about the data centers, and I’m worried about the water that’s going to be used by them. And do you know that Hyundai had a permit to use up to 3 million gallons of water a day? But they never used that much.

I fear EWEB will raise water rates, preventing a bit of food self-reliance from coming to fruition for homeowners and renters, and to bring a little bit of sanity to people’s minds.

I will make suggestions to EWEB and an announcement. Noticing the $10 million budget line for AI for the EWEB budget year, I wanted to ask if you could have town hall meetings held at the Hult (Center) or the former planing mill closer to downtown, inviting ratepayer owners to suggest innovative ideas for the AI money.

One might consult with AI: How much it would cost to supply water-conserving irrigation for one+ garden beds most efficiently?

And to research and ID original updated optimal drip irrigation systems overhead or in-ground for keyhole garden beds and garden towers (pictures at GardenTowerProject.com of the latter). 

How to plan to grow 50 vegetables in a 4×4 foot space with central perforated pipe compost holder.

Amazing how much food can be grown here year-round. 

You’ve heard about LiberatedSalad.com and that’s an ahimsa garden where one eats the outer leaves and lets the inner grow. Any busy person, single parent can provide abundant greens year-round in our mild climate, about which Rodale Press from Organic Gardening magazine marveled when they visited here in the early 1980s.

LibSal is a flexible seed mixture I developed with Dr. Alan Kapuler, who graduated first in his class at Yale as an undergrad, owner of Peace Seeds, a planetary gene pool service.

We developed this garden that thrives. Even light snow needs no protective coverings. And the (OSU Extension) Master Gardener Instructor Pat Patterson said it was the best winter garden she had ever seen.

Reckoning time would come when LibSal would be greatly needed, and the time is now, when droughts have worsened and when 80,000 industrial-sized batteries blew up in Moss Landing, California, January 2025, essentially poisoning the salad bowl of America, where up to 70% of vegetables are grown consumed in the U.S., I thought that was the time.

Recently, I learned that 30% of farms are now poisoned here in the country from biosolids—sewage sludge—being used in 48 states, others from carpet manufacturing and other industry waste, and some contain federally-mandated signage now and deed restrictions recorded, saying, ‘No food for human or animal consumption can be grown here.’

I sent you emails about that today or put in your search engine: ‘Forever chemicals, I Hemp Michigan, Jason Grostic.’

So, we need to plan for our food system. 

Alejandro Garcia Iboa: My name is Alejandro Garcia Iboa. EWEB is an integral part of our community, and I know that you care about the well-being and the quality of life of everyone here.

Today, I come here to ask that you put the community first by expanding limited income assistance programs, institute stronger protections for customers from footing the bill for AI hyperscale data centers, and to expand the incentives for energy efficiency and conservation, specifically the Live Green program.

I am a son, a brother, a cat dad, and an uncle to two nieces and a nephew who are growing up way too fast. Over the past couple years, I’ve been able to share with them some experiences that have really shaped my life as a whole. I have taken them on hikes up and down Skinner’s Butte. I’ve walked along the riverfront with them on sunny summer days, and you know, whenever possible, we go and swim in the Willamette River because we always got to cool off.

I’ve come to realize that I take a lot of things for granted. I take for granted the clean air, the clean water, and the clean energy I take for granted the things that are now under threat by AI hyperscale data centers.

Some people say that the writing is on the wall for AI hyperscale data centers, that it’s only a matter of time before they begin to take more than their fair share of our natural resources, leaving us footing the bill.

I’m here to tell those folks in this room and online that far from being a foregone conclusion, that we have the power to change that trajectory. We can and must protect what matters most to us, which is our quality of life, clean air, clean water, a livable climate future, and an equitable and just energy system that does not shift the burden of corporations’ interests onto the backs of the communities that they actively harm.

What we need now more than ever, is for EWEB to put customer protections first. While we do our best to protect our friends, our families and our community members—our neighbors—from heat waves, natural disasters, and climate change, we need you to step up and protect residential customers and small businesses from rising costs while incentivizing energy efficiency and conservation.

The state has already put in place protections for customers when it comes to rate increases from data center development. But we need to do better.

By making stronger protections and expanding limited-income assistance programs for EWEB customers, you’re sending a clear example and a clear signal for corporations (who view cities like Eugene as a safe haven because of our lower energy costs and because of less regulation) that you all will not fall victim to their tactics.

In order to enjoy those hikes up the butte, walks along the riverfront, and the sunny summer days spent in the river, we must envision a better world where we allow for those things. When it comes to creating a better future, we are all in this together—including EWEB.

Robin Bloomgarden: My name is Robin Bloomgarden, and welcome to the new manager. (I assume you’re that, but I can’t read anybody’s names on these things. It’s kind of like not facing the public.)

EWEB operates a municipal utility system providing critical electric, water and wastewater services to residents, small businesses, and industrial users.

Electricity rates in Eugene have long been skewed lowest toward industrial users and then commercial users, leaving residential customers paying the highest rates in town. My numbers come from three independent industry reports over a few years. How is this democratic and fair? Some industrial customers pay less than half of what residential customers pay.

Large or hyperscale data centers looking to settle here require disproportionate amounts of electrical capacity and cooling water compared to traditional commercial users. The rapid expansion of these large-load facilities necessitates significant public investment in grid infrastructure, electric substation upgrades, and water treatment capacity.

EWEB may or may not be able to accommodate the expanded levels of water, electricity and wastewater processing by any large data centers coming on board, especially as drought and climate change continue to stress this state. There will be legal ramifications if the city and EWEB cannot provide the levels of infrastructure guaranteed long-term in data center agreements.

In that case, who is liable? Will this be another local government legal morass into the future? 

First, I would suggest that EWEB not work with any company demanding an NDA in order to do business. It’s very undemocratic and undermines the very public you claim to care about. 

Second, enact a permanent ban or three-year moratorium against data centers coming willy-nilly into Eugene and its environs.

Third, work with the city of Eugene to create rules. Now that may help you all to clearly delineate what you both expect from any large new energy-intensive uses in E1 and other mixed-use and industrial zoning. 

Please do it now. Don’t wait until after we have a mess on our hands. Thank you. 

Presenter: Joshua Korn:

Joshua Korn: Thanks. I am also here to speak out against the AI data center stuff that is percolating around. And it seems like they obviously are going to want your power from EWEB.

And I’ve spoken out previously, for many years, probably over a decade, about other surveillance topics. And I just want to remind you that these AI data centers (or maybe inform you if you’re not aware of it), that these AI data centers are not to power your ChatGPT and Claude. They have plenty of computer inference with just a few of these data centers to handle all that. This is for other purposes. 

And there are again, just like there were within the 5G infrastructure and in the smart meter infrastructure, these are all surveillance tools. These are agendas to track, trace, and database everything that humans are doing everywhere they are doing it. 

And this agenda is not going to stop.

So these every new little aspect of it that comes about this is, these are anti-human agendas. And we don’t need them to utilize some of the features that we’re already using in AI. 

So don’t misconstrue these agendas of AI data centers and winning against China and all this stuff. I’ll tell you, China’s already beat us in terms of the AI technologies. 

They beat us with far less AI data centers than what we have already. So why then is there such a push for so much AI data centers all over this country? And there’s obviously a lot of people here that are opposed to this onslaught.

And we know what we’re talking about and we know what’s going on. So don’t give them our power. Don’t give them our water. These are resources for the people. I could say a lot more, but we’ll save it for next time. So thank you.

Susan Pileggi: My name is Susan Pileggi. I’m a community member here and I want to make a few comments regarding the data centers. 

I want to validate what Robin (Bloomgarden) said. She did a really great job.I think that our energy and water resources are limited. And I think this is a changing world today than what we’ve lived in. 

I’ve been around for a while and I think it is not business as usual. I’ve said this before, and I understand how public employees have rules and regulations that they feel that they must follow.

But I do think it is time to think outside of the box and consider what demands we’re putting on our water and the huge energy demands that are being put up on the infrastructure because of data centers.

I don’t think that it’s possible to say yes to everything and find the energy to do it without having serious environmental impacts.

And just my final thought is this, is: Our system is based on capitalism, and capitalism will drive our planet into climate crisis. We’re in climate crisis. We see it around. We see melting glaciers in Nepal and Tibet. And it is predicted, modeled, that the Willamette Valley will suffer a major drought, within the next 50 years.

So I think my request is that in building a plan for how you’re going to meet the requests that come to you from data centers that you consider limited resources and maybe instead of just more and more considering confining what kind of requests that you’re considering and how to meet them. 

Elijah Wilensky: My name is Elijah Wilensky. I’m a student of biology and chemistry at the University of Oregon. 

We’ve already had several very good speakers very poignantly talk about the issue of data center construction. And I think there are several things that you can do, including clarifying some of the language used when talking about data centers and their impacts.

For the sake of brevity, I’ll only talk about one example. But in the FAQ on this issue, every single question that could be answered by a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ is answered with a ‘No’ (followed by a period) except for one, the issue of whether or not data center construction could lead to rate hikes.

Not only does it not start with a ‘No,’ it does not try to give any opinion on the matter, however qualified. It doesn’t say maybe or possibly. It does not say we believe it is relatively reasonable that they would not. It says nothing of the sort.

What it does do is issue several statements, state several facts that might lead someone to imagine, possibly, that there will be no effect, or even that they will lower energy rates, which reads to me very much like this body is very much wants us to believe something that it is uncomfortable saying, possibly for the reason that it is not true.

And so I would like to request that going forward in all public statements, don’t dodge the question of whether or not this will lead to my energy bill going up. The rent’s already not great.

Jordan Warmke-Robitaille: My name is Jordan Warmke-Robitaille. I’m a second-year law student at the University of Oregon in Eugene, where I study natural resource law. One of the reasons I chose to attend the University of Oregon was its proximity to some of the most beautiful and intact public riverways and forests in the country.

And I’m here today to express my deep concern about fish passage at the Carmen Smith hydroelectric project on the Upper McKenzie River.

Federally listed Chinook salmon and bull trout populations in the McKenzie River are declining, and since 1963, the Trail Bridge Dam has stood as an absolute barrier to migratory fish species and prevented salmon from accessing the high quality cold water habitat upriver.

EWEB has promised to provide fish passage at the Trail Bridge Dam as part of its compliance with hydropower license and the Endangered Species Act for over 20 years, but has yet to keep its commitments and legal obligations.

EWEB began the process to relicense the facility in the early 2000s, though its ultimate license was not issued by FERC until 2019. 

The license requires EWEB to complete upstream and downstream fish passage facilities at the Trail Bridge Dam by May 2022. Unfortunately, by May 2022, EWEB had yet to even begin construction.

In late 2023 and 2024, both FERC as well as the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service expressed serious concerns about EWEB’s compliance with its license, adherence to the terms and conditions of the wildlife protection requirements, and threatened steep penalties and regulatory action due to these failures.

EWEB had previously worked to amend its requirements to build a fish ladder, but instead elected to go with trap and haul fish around the dam. The agencies also questioned why EWEB’s pretext stated as economics was not adequately supported. 

The agencies specifically contended that the economic analysis had proven inaccurate and required further study.

To date, EWEB has failed to provide analysis or justification for its position that volitional fish passage is more expensive than the trap and haul over the lifetime of the license.

I’m here today because EWEB has recently filed another draft application for its license amendment and EWEB seeks to again amend and delay its requirements to provide fish passage at the Trail Bridge Dam.

My concerns are heightened because the proposal includes no economic analysis, cost benefit analysis of available fish passage measures such as lack of access due to fire season.

I’m here today to urge you to follow through on its original commitment to provide permanent volitional fish passage past the Trail Bridge Dam. I further request that you transparently explain its decision to the community and its ratepayers by providing a cost benefit analysis for the lifespan of the license. Thank you.

Presenter: Public comments Sept. 8 discuss data centers and AI, while asking EWEB to provide safe water for home gardens and to provide fish passage at Trail Bridge Dam.