The Dalles fought 13 months to hide how much water Google used. It was 29% of the city's.

The request

In 2021 The Oregonian asked The Dalles, a city of about 16,000 on the Columbia River, for records of how much water Google's data centres there used. The city refused, arguing the figure was Google's trade secret, and then sued the newspaper to block the request. Google funded the city's side of the case.

The settlement

Thirteen months later, after the Wasco County district attorney sided with the newspaper, the city settled. Google had paid more than $100,000 toward the city's legal costs and agreed to pay a further $53,000 owed to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which had represented The Oregonian.

The records showed Google's data centres used 355.1 million gallons in 2021, about 29% of the city's total water consumption, up from 124.2 million gallons in 2017. Two more data centres were planned along the river, supported by a $28.5 million water-infrastructure agreement with the city.

Why it mattered

The volume was not the scandal; a fleet at Google's WUE of about 1.15 litres per kilowatt-hour will use a lot of water, and The Dalles is on one of the largest rivers in North America. The scandal was the secrecy: a public utility's customer using a public resource at a scale that affected the whole town, and the town's government litigating to keep residents from knowing. The case became the reference point for every subsequent fight over data-centre water disclosure, from Arizona to Johor.

What changed

Google has since reversed its position in public. In June 2026, amid growing local backlash to data centres, Axios reported the company backing public water-reporting standards for the industry. Its 2026 environmental report discloses fleet freshwater consumption of 10.9 billion gallons, up 34% in a year, and a replenishment rate of about 78%.

In the index

The Dalles sits in Google's water and conduct evidence. The water pillar notes the fleet's rising consumption and its 1.15 L/kWh WUE; the conduct pillar records both the legal fight and the reversal. It is one reason Google, with the best per-prompt disclosure in the index, scores 55 on conduct rather than the 75 or more its reporting would otherwise earn. Disclosure that arrives after a lawsuit is still disclosure, and the index counts it; the lawsuit is counted too.