Most of the roughly 56 public comments opposed data center development in the county or raised concerns about groundwater shortages, agricultural impacts, a lack of transparency and effects on wildlife. A handful of speakers backed the project, citing job creation and economic development.

Some attendees carried signs reading "Amazon lies," "Big tech is shady. No more data centers" and "Elected officials shouldn't have NDAs with corporations."

"We have to protect the land and the species that are so special to our home," said Mariah Sprague, a Walla Walla resident of more than 40 years.

In February, the Port of Walla Walla sold 554 acres at the Wallula Gap Business Park to Amazon Web Services. The company plans to build a campus on 134 of those acres with three data centers serving artificial intelligence and cloud computing. The site sits between Dodd Road and Worden Road east of Highway 12, about 0.4 miles from the Columbia River.

Many speakers asked commissioners to impose a one-year, countywide moratorium on new data center development so residents and officials can better understand the environmental and social effects and weigh whether the facilities bring more benefit than harm.

McKenzie Catlett, 19, called data centers major polluters that contribute heavily to climate change.

"I'm terrified for my future, not only in the city but on this planet," she said, adding that commissioners need to hear from younger generations. "The decisions you make today will affect people like me for the rest of our lives."

Natalie Williams, a Pasco resident, drove from the Tri-Cities to warn that the project could harm wildlife at the nearby McNary National Wildlife Refuge.

"You need to protect your water for firefighting, for drinking, and protect us from a predator known as Amazon," she said.

Magnus Chandler, a member of the Walla Walla Anti-Data Center League, asked commissioners and the audience whether fewer than 200 permanent jobs were worth selling potable water to cool servers. At an Amazon open house in August, Roger Wehner, vice president of economic development for AWS, said the data center would generate between 125 and 150 full-time jobs.

According to previous reporting, the campus will draw groundwater from the Port of Walla Walla's Wallula-Dodd potable water system until January 2029. After that, Amazon plans to use water from an existing Columbia River irrigation pipeline for cooling, with the port converting its Columbia River water rights from irrigation to municipal and industrial use.

Kurt Brown of Walla Walla said he worries about the data center's water use because the Paradise Fire burned thousands of acres in the Mill Creek Watershed, potentially increasing residents' reliance on groundwater in coming years.

"During a time that things are so up in the air about what city of Walla Walla's water supply is, we are now granting groundwater rights to a company that is producing something that there's no dire need for," he said.

Richard Eggers, a Walla Walla resident who supports the development, said the data center could offer high-paying jobs and raise incomes.

"You have farming, agriculture, wine, tourism, and now you have high-tech jobs in Walla Walla County, which can only be good," he said.

Sprague rejected comparisons between data centers and farming or food production. "We cannot eat data," she said. "We cannot feed data to our kids."

Commissioner Bertha Clayton said she would consider a one-year pause on new data center applications to give officials time to draft an ordinance defining data centers, restricting them to specific areas and exploring mechanisms for "full project transparency and developer accountability."

The Amazon project, she said, is moving forward as a permitted use because code interpretations issued by former community development directors concluded that data centers are equivalent to warehouses and storage facilities. The property is zoned Industrial Agriculture-Mixed and lies within the county's urban growth area, where urban development is encouraged and planned.

Clayton said any zoning changes made now are unlikely to affect the current phase of the Amazon project. "However, I believe additional data center applications are inevitable," she said.

Commissioner Gunner Fulmer said Amazon does not have authority to proceed with a full build-out. "They have a right to do three buildings at a time and then they have to re-permit the entire process again," he said. He also emphasized that commissioners have not signed nondisclosure agreements or tax exemption agreements with Amazon. Fulmer and Commissioner Todd Kimball said at a previous meeting that they do not support the moratorium.

The county is working with Facet, a Northwest-based third-party planning consultant, on a State Environmental Policy Act review, which identifies and analyzes environmental impacts of governmental decisions. Once complete, the county will discuss findings with AWS so any issues can be mitigated.

"Once we receive any additional information requested and have agreed on appropriate mitigation if necessary, I will prepare a SEPA threshold determination and publish it," Melissa Shumake, the county community development director, wrote in an Oct. 13 email.

A threshold determination establishes whether a project could have adverse environmental impacts requiring a full environmental impact statement. The county will open another comment period when the threshold is issued, then make its final decision on the application.