What Project Walla Walla is, and isn’t
We’re excited about the opportunity to invest in Walla Walla County, and we know that excitement means little without specifics.
Below is what’s been decided, what’s still being worked out, and the commitments that will guide how we engage, design, and operate as those decisions get made.
This project will not raise electricity rates for other customers.
Walla Walla County families should not subsidize this project. Amazon intends to pay the full cost of the energy infrastructure and electric-service upgrades required to serve the campus, in coordination with Pacific Power and Washington utility regulators, so those costs are not shifted onto existing residential or commercial ratepayers.
Smart, flexible power use
Data center loads are increasingly being designed to flex, reducing consumption during periods of high regional demand rather than competing with homes and businesses for power.
We intend for Project Walla Walla to be designed with this kind of demand flexibility from day one, so it supports the reliability of the local grid rather than straining it.
Water use, minimized by design
The campus is being designed to conserve water. In this region’s climate, outdoor air cooling is expected to handle roughly 90% of the year, with water-based cooling reserved for the hottest stretches of summer, so the amount of water drawn for cooling stays low.
Ongoing water use is expected to be comparable to other workplaces of a similar size, covering restrooms, kitchens, landscaping, and fire suppression.
What the county would get back
- $100,000–$200,000 in community grants, shaped by local priorities rather than dictated from outside the county.
- Up to $5 million in workforce and technical-education support for Walla Walla Community College and regional high school career-tech programs.
- An expected $120 million+ in state and local tax revenue over the life of the project.
- The data center pays 100% of its property taxes, funding local schools, roads, and emergency services.
- 1,500 construction jobs at peak, and 150 permanent on-site roles once fully built out, with a preference for local hiring and contractors.
All figures are preliminary and may change as planning, engineering, permitting, and community engagement continue.
Being accountable to what we say here
To help make sure these commitments are more than words on a website, we intend to commission an independent, publicly available audit on a regular basis once the project is operating.
We’ll also keep the Project Status page updated with permitting and construction milestones as they happen — not just the ones that make us look good.
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