News that a tech company wants to build a $5.1 billion data center on 75 acres of industrial land in southeast Salem drew immediate community outrage and support.

Salem leaders are stressing that the Oakline at Mill Creek project by Verrus is still in its infancy and they want residents to voice their concerns and be included in the public development process.

“There is a misconception that the negotiations have already been done,” City Manager Krishna Namburi told the Statesman Journal.

Verrus has not submitted a land use application for the spot on the Mill Creek Corporate Center campus at Turner Road and Deer Park Drive.

“It’s not a done deal,” Namburi said.

Tentative timelines for the project show the land use process taking up the bulk of 2026. A public input period would take place before plan review and permitting in 2027. Construction would last into 2029.

Supporters said the project would bring in high-paying, yearslong construction, carpentry and electrician jobs. Also, expectations are that the development would add $9 million per year to Salem’s General Fund and $1.5 million to the city’s livability levy that funds the library, parks and senior center.

City officials confirmed that Verrus received approval for a standard three-year state Enterprise Zone property tax exemption from Marion County. Council approval was not required.

After that exemption expires, taxing districts would begin receiving property-tax revenue from the development.

Project opponents spoke out against the data center’s potential water and electricity use as well as the environmental impact.

A team collected 8,636 signatures within a week for a Change.org petition to stop the development of the center. Calls for action spread among local organizations, encouraging residents to protest before the July 27 Salem City Council meeting and testify in opposition.

Verrus CEO Nelson Abramson said he understands that Salem residents have questions about the project’s water use, noise and environmental impacts, and his team welcomes that scrutiny.

“While Oakline is still early in the process and we have not yet submitted a formal application with detailed building schematics or drawings, our next-generation data center is designed from the ground up to minimize water use, maximize energy efficiency and support power grid reliability,” he said.

Namburi said the city is committed to keeping community members as informed and engaged as possible throughout the process. Some opponents criticized the city for entering into a nondisclosure agreement with Verrus for over a year.

Namburi said the city entered into that agreement through the Salem economic development group SEDCOR in March 2025 when potential project locations in the city were floated. Such agreements are very common when companies are exploring the possibility of developing or expanding into new cities, she said.

The nondisclosure agreement was lifted in early July.

Verrus chose to begin this public conversation before the design is final because it wants to work directly with the city and community to help shape the project, Abramson said.

“We are going public earlier than most others would to demonstrate what makes Verrus different,” he said. “The Salem community should expect developers like Verrus to be accountable to what we say at each stage of the process. Know that our core beliefs start with building a new kind of data center that’s better for the grid and a far more efficient user of our natural resources like water.”

Namburi and Community Planning and Development Director Kristin Retherford stressed that the city’s role is to follow the legally required land-use and permitting processes, which require an application, reviews and public input, rather than advocate for or against the project.

The proposed site is zoned for industrial use and a data center is one of the permitted uses, Namburi said.

Preliminary renderings for the project show a substation and two-story buildings that could have a footprint of up to 1.8 million square feet.

The location is near Corban University, the Dollar General Distribution Center, the Genesco warehouse and the former Mill Creek Correctional Facility.

The Mill Creek Corporate Center and zoning framework were established in 2005 to prepare the land for industrial development, Retherford said. Salem’s code was updated in 2014 to allow data centers in employment center zones.

State, federal and city law requires Salem to evaluate projects according to established guidelines.

“We’re not at a point where we can say no data centers in Mill Creek,” Retherford said.

Council could make a motion to rezone properties to not allow data centers going forward.

But the city and public can voice concerns about the environmental and water impact through the lengthy land use and development process.

If a formal application is filed, a public notice would be sent to neighboring property owners and the Southeast Mill Creek Association. A 14-day public comment period would occur, and any appeal would trigger a public hearing.

“We will be evaluating a very long list of community impacts,” Retherford said.

Jeff Bladen, head of energy and policy at Silicon Valley-based Verrus, said the company specifically seeks communities that already have land designated for industrial use. He also cited Salem’s skilled workforce, apprenticeship programs and potential partnerships with local colleges as additional factors drawing Verrus to the city.

“Data centers need to do better,” he said. “Verrus was really the first company coming along to try and build a truly new and better kind of data center.”

Company officials said the development’s water consumption would be low, and Namburi said staff would carefully evaluate water consumption projections to ensure the city’s long-term water needs would not be put at risk.

Retherford said measures are in place with the city and agencies like the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to hold companies accountable if they do not follow through on their water consumption and environmental impact promises.

Verrus leaders said that the data center in Salem will be different. Unlike legacy data centers, it is designed to support the local power grid, conserve water with a closed-loop cooling system, minimize noise with large-scale batteries instead of diesel generators, and contribute meaningfully to the community and economy over the long term, Bladen said.

Company officials claim the water use will be significantly less than that of an 18-hole golf course.

“I think it’s important to recognize that people’s concerns are valid,” Bladen said.

The proposed Salem facility, which would take multiple years to permit and build, would be one of Verrus’ first. The company’s quest to build a data center in Lyon Township, Michigan, has received substantial community pushback but is nearing final approval.

Verrus leadership said community engagement will be a key part of the process going forward. Already, the company’s conversations with city leaders led them to commit to preserving a grove of heritage oak trees on the property.

“We look forward to customizing our approach for Salem addressing common concerns raised and showing how community input is influencing the final design,” Abramson said.

Editor’s note: This article first appeared in The Statesman Journal and then was distributed on the USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect.

The post Divisive $5.1 billion data center proposal emerges in Salem appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

By Whitney Woodworth
Salem Statesman Journal

Marion County, along with a collection of Santiam Canyon cities and agencies, submitted a formal letter June 22 to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers urging it to cancel any deep drawdown of Detroit Reservoir in 2026 and reevaluate future draining plans.

The letter, which cites serious risks to downstream drinking water systems, local recreation and fish populations, was submitted on behalf of a community coalition that includes Stayton, Sublimity, Mill City, Detroit Lake Foundation, Detroit Lake Marina, Woodburn Area Chamber of Commerce and North Marion Tourism Collaborative.

The city of Salem also sent a letter in early 2026 urging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to take more steps to protect the city’s drinking water. It was not one of the cities that signed the June 22 letter.

“Our residents depend on clean, reliable drinking water,” Marion County Commissioner Kevin Cameron said. “The Army Corps should complete the analysis required by law before taking on any risks that could harm that supply.”

Commissioner Colm Willis said the Corps’ own analysis acknowledges the drawdown’s adverse risk to drinking water and recreation.

“The risks to our communities strongly outweigh any perceived, hypothetical benefits from this drawdown,” Willis said.

The drawdown is meant to save endangered salmon, but that could impact water quality for 210,000 and harm the economy of the Santiam Canyon. It has been the source of disagreement between the county and federal agency since news of it was first reported by the Statesman Journal in January 2025.

The move spurred alarm bells in Salem and Marion County over concern the drawdown would flush muddy water into the drinking water facilities for Stayton and Salem.

Salem City Council voted to declare a state of emergency in July 2025. The declaration allowed the city to take immediate action to prepare for the impacts of the drawdown, including constructing new groundwater wells at the Geren Island Water Treatment Plant and adding a new pump station connection with Keizer.

The letter comes after Marion County filed a lawsuit in May against the Corps asking a federal court to pause efforts to drain the lake until the Corps completes a federally required turbidity request.

Marion County also sent letters in December 2025 and in January 2026 asking for a halt to the drawdown. The county also requested a more formal review, pointing to the 2023 Green Peter Reservoir drawdown, “which caused significant damage to downstream water filtration systems and killed hundreds of thousands of kokanee salmon.”

County leaders said despite these warnings, the Corps published its Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement in May without completing the required turbidity study.

The joint letter sent on June 22 asks the Corps to refrain from authorizing any deep drawdown in 2026 and to satisfy five conditions before revisiting a draining plan: completing the turbidity report; establishing enforceable triggers for termination if the drawdown impacts water quality, recreation and fisheries; demonstrating that prior drawdowns produced improvements in fish passage; consult directly with downstream water providers and governments for coordination and emergency response; and identify and commit in advance to funding for impacts to water systems and local businesses.

“Any changes to Detroit Lake’s water level must be grounded in data-backed science with meaningful protections in place for our downstream communities,” Commissioner Danielle Bethell said. “We will continue working to ensure that decisions made at the federal level align with the needs of local communities.”

Statesman Journal reporter Zach Urness also contributed to this report.

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Owners of two controversial waste dumping pits on Marion County farms, started by the same local excavator, may soon learn whether they can resume operations.

Greg Wing of Hubbard-based All-Ways Excavating built and operated the pits, in Aurora and Hubbard, charging to accept waste from vactor trucks used by multiple companies, as well as countertop cutting waste from Hubbard-based Pacific NW Marble & Granite.

Both sites are in exclusive farm use zones and operated without state or local permits or approval. Both temporarily halted operations in 2024, after the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality threatened fines and began pushing property owners to clean them up.

Neighbors and land-use groups say the pits pose a threat to the environment. Wing and the property owners have repeatedly said they are just filling in low-lying land so it can be used for farming, which is allowed under Oregon law.

The fates of both sites hinge on how the waste going into the pits is defined.

In Aurora, Denise Burnham has asked Marion County commissioners to overturn the county’s February rejection of her application to restart operations on her 129-acre property at 21875 Butteville Road.

In January 2024, the DEQ issued Burnham a pre-enforcement notice, finding she was responsible for four violations of Oregon environmental law and asking her to stop accepting waste. She ceased operations the next day.

In March 2025, the DEQ issued a formal order, requiring Burnham to submit plans to either properly reconstruct the pit or properly decommission it. Burnham appealed, and in September the DEQ withdrew its order.

Meanwhile, Marion County also asked Burnham to remove the pit, calling the operation “an illegal dump site.”

In September 2025, Burnham asked the county’s planning division for an administrative review to determine whether operation of the waste pit qualifies as a “farm use.”

The county denied the application, instead ordering that the pit’s berm, asphalt dumping stations and other components of the disposal site be removed.

Burnham appealed that decision and on Feb. 17, a county hearings officer denied her appeal.

In her latest appeal, Burnham claims the hearings officer based the denial on erroneous findings, including the decision that accepting vactor truck waste as fill dirt is not defined as an accepted agricultural practice.

Marion County Commissioners are scheduled to hear the latest appeal on July 22.

In Hubbard, property owners David and Susette McDonald have asked the DEQ for a “beneficial use determination,” for countertop waste.

The determination allows businesses to repurpose industrial byproducts for alternative uses, rather than requiring disposal.

Their application, filed May 29, comes nearly two years after the DEQ’s deadline for action.

In April 2024, the DEQ issued a pre-enforcement notice to the McDonalds, finding they were responsible for five violations of Oregon environmental law on their property, at 14616 Whiskey Hill Road N.E., and asking them to immediately stop accepting waste.

The DEQ asked the McDonalds to take one of three actions by June 2024: apply for a solid waste disposal permit, submit a plan to remove the waste from the property, or demonstrate that the waste is clean fill and exempt from requirements.

The McDonalds chose the third option. They were given multiple deadline extensions before submitting the application for a beneficial use determination on May 29, 2026.

DEQ spokesman Dylan Darling was unable to say whether the beneficial use designation would be for materials currently on the site or for additional waste going forward. That’s because the department has not yet reviewed the application, he said.

Meanwhile, the McDonalds are suing Wing, alleging negligence, fraud and elder abuse. They are seeking $15 million.

In their lawsuit, filed in November 2024, the McDonalds say Wing lied about having proper permits for the project, dumped countertop waste without their permission, and took advantage of their advanced age, creating so much stress that David McDonald had a series of strokes.

In their lawsuit, the McDonalds allege that countertop waste is contaminated by ink, which may be hazardous, and netting and paper, which does not decompose.

In court filings, Wing has denied the allegations and filed a cross-claim against the McDonalds’ grandson, Jake McDonald, and local excavator Dark Horse Construction.

In his claim, Wing says Jake McDonald was aware of the dumping activities at his grandparents’ property and gave permission for them. Dark Horse Construction, which performed some work on the dump pit after the McDonalds terminated their relationship with Wing, is responsible for any damage to the property, Wing says.

Wing also has filed a cross-claim against Pacific NW Marble & Granite. In it, he states that the DEQ already has classified the countertop waste as industrial solid waste.

In early May, Darling said the department has not yet made that determination. He declined to comment on Wing’s statement in the lawsuit, saying the DEQ does not comment on litigation, even when it is not a party to the case.

Editor’s note: This article first appeared in The Statesman Journal and then was distributed on the USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect.

The post Challenges mount for controversial waste pits in Marion County appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

By Bill Poehler
Salem Statesman Journal / USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

The owner of an unlicensed waste pit on a farm outside of Aurora, Oregon, argued that she had done nothing wrong and that the waste accepted for a fee from industrial vacuum excavation companies for about three months in 2023 and into 2024 is farm use.

Marion County hearings officer Jill Foster heard arguments on Dec. 18 about the appeal of Marion County’s Sept. 25 determination that filling the pit with waste is not farm use.

Foster did not give a timeline for when she would make a decision in the case.

Property owner Denise Burnham’s attorney, Thomas Benke, shot back at the county’s decision.

He argued county staff defamed the pit when it said the material deposited there was not necessarily clean as it had not been tested when it was brought there.

“County officials felt like it was necessary to fill their decision with a lot of disparaging information about what this dirt and water could be, which I think is inappropriate and defamatory,” Benke said.

Waste pit was built in 2023, but was quickly shut down

The 200 foot by 100 foot wide, 20-foot deep pit was built on the hazelnut farm at 21875 Butteville Road outside of Aurora in 2023. It includes six asphalt dumping bays marked by painted white lines on the ground and yellow safety railings.

Benke argued that the dam built on Burnham’s property is in the best interest of the environment as an erosion control structure that keeps dirt from flowing into bordering Ryan Creek.

Marion County determined the dirt berm on the west side of the pit needs to be removed along with the asphalt dumping stations, yellow guardrails and other components of the site. Those have yet to be removed.

A gravel road leading to the pit was also improved, and Burnham testified that those improvements were to make it usable year-round.

The county determined that none of what was being done there is allowed under the exclusive farm use zoning of the location.

“We do not believe this is what’s taking place on the subject property,” Marion County principal planner Austin Barnes said.

Does being paid to take waste make it a commercial activity?

Much of the arguments to the hearings officer centered on if the waste being deposited was a commercial activity.

“Applicants received a compensation for each truck that dumped based on evidence submitted to the record for receiving $300 per load and receiving 238 loads from November 2023 to January 2024,” Barnes said.

“It should be noted that once these companies, namely (Portland General Electric) and NW Natural found out this pit was not licensed by DEQ and the county, they immediately told their drivers to stop hauling their waste there.”

Benke argued the farm charging money to accept waste didn’t necessarily mean it wasn’t for farm use. He used an analogy of one farmer selling dirt to another.

“Who’s business is it?” Benke said.

Burnham said the money that was accepted was put back into the farm.

“The appeal letter denies (Burnham) is getting paid,” argued Joseph Schaefer, a paralegal with the law firm Jordan Ramis. “It’s notable today that that seems to being walked back quite a bit.”

Was the dirt deposited on site fill dirt?

Benke argued that the dirt deposited there is fill dirt. He said the original dirt in that location was moved and will be put back once the site is leveled.

Ben Williams of land use advocacy group Friends of French Prairie said there was no testing of the material that was deposited at the site.

“This is the wrong way,” Williams said. “No permits were applied for for any of the facilities that are in place at this location.”

Barnes said the normal disposal method for vactor trucks – the type that deposited material at the site – is more involved than what was going on at the Aurora site.

“Based on staff research, the typical disposal method for vactor trucks is to take them to a licensed solid waste facility where the material is dumped and left to dry on a flat surface, allowing the process of evaporation to dry the soil,” Barnes said.

“This is different from dumping into a pit and drying the soils. This pit has typically been filled with water,” Barnes said.

Burnham argued the materials deposited there is intended to level that portion of land so she can plant more hazelnut trees.

Burnham argued nothing she has done requires a permit from any agency.

Attorney argues land use groups are against farmers

Benke took issue with the farmers who oppose the proposal, accusing them of being against farmers.

“I get the impression from some of the opposition to this proposal is that some of our friends are purporting to be farm friendly, but they’re not in fact farmer friendly,” Benke said.

Cheyne Fobert, the son-in-law of Burnham who managed the pit, said no dirt left the property and his goal was to turn the area into airable farmland.

He blamed the farmers who complained about the operation for getting it shut down.

“We’re pretty appalled by the neighbors,” he said.

The excavator who built and operated the pit and another in Hubbard, All-Ways Excavating owner Greg Wing, is being sued by the Hubbard property owner for $15 million for negligence, fraud and elder abuse.

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