Amazon says it no longer signs nondisclosure agreements with the government agencies it works with on data center projects, and that what it pays for power should cover the grid upgrades its sites require. Those pledges, posted Friday, Oct. 2, by Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman, arrive as the company’s proposed data center campus at Wallula Gap, southeast of Pasco, works through Walla Walla County review. The project is still alive. No final decision has been made, and the first public comment period closes at 5 p.m. Monday, Oct. 12.

Garman’s post on Amazon’s news site lays out what the company calls the “Amazon Data Center Commitment.” “We no longer use nondisclosure agreements with the government agencies we work with on our projects,” it says. Amazon says it will hold open houses and share plans “as early as possible,” and will publish its data centers’ energy use, energy efficiency, water use, water efficiency and share of carbon-free power every year. The post does not say when the first report will come out. On electricity, Amazon says it works with utilities and regulators so that the prices it pays “are sufficient to cover both the energy and infrastructure improvements that may be required.” The post also announced “Built Together,” more than $1 billion over five years for community college, job training and energy-efficiency grants in data center communities. WIRED reported that Amazon did not answer whether the NDA pledge extends to contractors. TechCrunch noted that no federal or state rules govern how tech companies report water and energy use.

The Wallula Gap project began under a different name. In late 2024, the Port of Walla Walla agreed to sell about 500 acres in its Wallula Gap Business Park to “Advance Phase LLC,” which pitched a $4.8 billion cluster of 16 data centers built in four phases, according to the Tri-City Herald, which headlined the plan as a $5 billion project. Amazon was confirmed as the buyer this year. The port approved the sale of 554 acres to Amazon Data Services on Feb. 12, 2026, according to Walla Walla County, for about $36 million, the Herald reported. Port Executive Director Patrick Reay told the Washington State Standard that commissioners signed a nondisclosure agreement with Amazon in March 2023, and that it barred them from naming the company until this year.

What Amazon has applied for so far is smaller than the full plan. Its application, filed May 22, covers 134 of the 554 acres, along Sundance Road between Dodd and Worden roads, about 1.4 miles east of U.S. 12, according to the county’s notice. The Union-Bulletin reported the site is about 0.4 mile from the Columbia River. The campus would have three data center buildings of about 220,000 square feet each, a security building, an industrial water facility, ponds, septic drainfields and a pad for a substation to be finished by a future utility provider. Amazon told the county it would build three buildings, not four, in this first phase over the next three years, the Standard reported. The land is zoned for industry, and data centers are a permitted use there under a county code interpretation from 2018 that was extended to this zone in 2025.

The county called the application incomplete in June because it lacked a traffic study. Amazon filed that study Aug. 21. The county deemed the application complete Aug. 24 and issued its notice Sept. 12. Community Development Director Melissa Shumake will make the decision. After comments close, the county will send them to Amazon, ask for responses, and then issue a State Environmental Policy Act threshold determination, which gets its own comment period. A final decision can be appealed to the county hearing examiner. The notice lists other permits as well, including a water right change, an air-quality approval and a substation permit from Columbia Rural Electric Association.

Amazon’s promise to cover its own grid costs is already written into local terms. Columbia REA, the Walla Walla-based cooperative that will serve the campus, said in May that its board voted unanimously to proceed “under strict conditions.” The data center will be in its own cost-based rate class, its costs tracked separately, and the developer will pay for all new substations, transmission lines, system upgrades, and engineering and legal costs. “Existing members should not subsidize the project or bear added financial risk,” CEO Scott Peters wrote. The Herald reported that Columbia REA buys its power from the Bonneville Power Administration, which caps new users at 10 megawatts of its lowest-cost power, so Amazon will have to buy or develop its own supply. How much power the campus will use is still not public. Amazon did not disclose it, the Standard reported, and company representatives declined to give specifics on energy use at an Aug. 11 open house in Burbank, according to the Union-Bulletin. A July 31 letter from Earthjustice, written for Columbia Riverkeeper and the Walla Walla Anti-Data Center League, says Amazon’s environmental checklist “never states how much electricity the campus will require.”

Water figures are public, but they do not match. Amazon’s environmental checklist estimates 18 million gallons of surface water a year for cooling and 6 million gallons of groundwater for domestic use, the Standard reported, while an Amazon FAQ puts cooling at 14 million gallons. Amazon did not immediately answer the Standard about the difference. Amazon says its use would be “considerably lower” than past farming on the land. Under the application, the port would supply groundwater from its Wallula-Dodd system until January 2029, then Columbia River water after converting existing irrigation rights, according to the Union-Bulletin and the Earthjustice letter.

Opposition has grown. The Walla Walla Anti-Data Center League wants a one-year countywide moratorium and a full environmental impact statement, and has gathered nearly 1,900 signatures on two petitions, the Standard reported. On Sunday, Oct. 4, about 40 people marched from Heritage Park to the county’s Community Development office as part of a statewide day of action, the Union-Bulletin reported. “You are not extremists for wanting transparency. You are not extremists for wanting clean drinking water,” league co-founder Ben Mattice told the crowd, according to the Standard. Opponents point to Amazon’s agreement earlier this year to pay more than $20 million to settle a lawsuit alleging its data centers in Morrow and Umatilla counties, Ore., contaminated groundwater with nitrate.

County and port officials are not moving to stop it. All three county commissioners said Sept. 14 they would not support a moratorium, the Union-Bulletin reported. “They have an application in. It grandfathers them into the old rules,” Commissioner Todd Kimball told the Standard. Commissioner Bertha Clayton attended the Oct. 4 rally and said, “This is a big project, has a big footprint, it has a potential for big impact,” adding that she wants the process to continue as the law prescribes. Shumake said she would require an environmental impact statement only if impacts cannot be mitigated. “This is an industrial zone with a project that ultimately has a smaller impact than other projects in the same industrial zone,” she told the Standard. Reay said the deal fit the port’s mission. “Where else could your assessed value raise by approximately 50% on 554 acres?” he said. The project has been estimated to bring the county $5 million a year in personal property taxes. Amazon said in a statement that it “is committed to responsible development and being a long-term, positive presence in the Walla Walla community.” In Olympia, Rep. Beth Doglio, D-Olympia, plans to bring back a data center bill next year with a provision to ban local officials from signing nondisclosure agreements with developers.

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