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Spokane residents are already alert to the dangers of PFAS, the toxic forever chemicals (per- and polyfluoralkyl substances). Fire-fighting foam from Fairchild AFB and Spokane International Airport has heavily contaminated drinking water and private wells in West Plains.[1] The Spokane River contains PFAS, thanks to agricultural biosolids, wastewater treatment plants, industrial pollution, and stormwater runoff. Now new data centers threaten to add new and larger problems.
The Dangers of PFAS. There are over 14,000 different PFAS compounds in use, and none are safe. Even tiny exposure levels are associated with cancer, reproductive disorders, and other health problems. The chemicals persist within ecosystems, wildlife, and human bodies, so small releases compound over time.[2]
Data centers are full of PFAS
Semiconductors: A hyperscale data center may contain 30,000 to 50,000 server racks.[3] Each one contains 4,500 chips,[4] for a total of 100 to 200 million semiconductors, which must be replaced every few years.[5] Semiconductors incorporate many different PFAS compounds in hundreds of different applications.[6] So keeping data centers up to date will generate massive quantities of solid e-waste.
Coolants: Chips run hot, and keeping them cool is a big part of what data centers do. There are various methods:
- Evaporation: Evaporative cooling uses lots of water and energy, so it is falling out of favor.
- Refrigerants: Many data centers cool servers with hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), the same PFAS gases used in commercial refrigeration systems. They are potent greenhouse gases (up to 14,000 times worse for the climate than CO2).[7] For this reason, HFCs are being phased out of cooling systems.
- Immersion cooling: A new cooling technology (which will likely be employed in new hyperscale data centers) submerges servers in sealed tanks containing non-conducting PFAS fluids called hydrofluoroolefins (HFOs) to keep them cool. HFO gases released into the atmosphere tend to transform into the toxic ultra short-chain PFAS called TFA, which falls to earth and contaminates land and water across the planet.[8] The major producer of HFOs for immersion cooling is Chemours, which is marketing a PFAS compound called Opteon 2P50. Chemours (DuPont’s spin-off company), one of the world’s largest PFAS manufacturers, has contaminated wells and groundwater across North Carolina.[9] In one form of immersion cooling, the heated liquids bubble up within the tanks as gases before contacting chilled water pipes and condensing as liquids. Chemours says each tank will use 1,270 liters of coolant, and a hyperscale data center will have hundreds of tanks.[10] Though these cooling methods are called closed-loop systems, small leaks are inevitable and catastrophic leaks are an ever-present possibility. Loss, leaks, and spills of both liquid and gas PFAS may occur during manufacturing, storage, transport, maintenance, filling, replacement, and disposal of the chemicals.
Fire-fighting equipment: Data centers use chemical fire-suppression systems, not water, which employ PFAS to extinguish fires.[11]
We Deserve to Know
Data center development is often shielded behind nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) and trade secrets. But the public deserves to know in advance about all toxic chemicals that will be used and the protection plans for residents, workers, and the environment.
- What cooling technology will new data centers use?
- What are the water sources and amounts?
- What gas or liquid will be in the system? How much?
- How will operators reduce the risk of gas or liquid leakage?
- How and where will they dispose of chemicals when it is time to replace them?
- Will a real-time monitoring system alert operators and the public if there is a significant leak?
- How much solid waste will be generated?
- How and where will it be disposed of?
- Will wastewater be monitored for PFAS? How often and using what methods?
- How will the public know about PFAS in the monitoring?
- Which chemicals are used by the fire-suppression system?
- How will data center operators clean up fire-fighting chemicals?
Spokane residents support data centers by giving access to our land, utilities, highway system, and other public resources. We have every right to demand clarity around their use and disposal of toxic chemicals.
To learn more about this issue, please contact West Plains Water Coalition at info@westplainswater.org or The Lands Council at tlc@landscouncil.org.
CHIPS Communities United is a national coalition of unions, environmental groups, and community-based organizations working to make the AI supply chain more equitable, sustainable, and accountable. You can learn more about us at www.chipscommunitiesunited.org or by emailing info@chipscommunitiesunited.org.
References
[1] http://westplainswater.org
[2] https://www.epa.gov/pfas/our-current-understanding-human-health-and-environmental-risks-pfas
[3] https://medium.com/venturevine/data-centers-b145337612d8
[4] https://www.semiconductors.org/new-report-finds-semiconductors-account-for-95-of-an-ai-data-server-racks-value-encompassing-the-full-stack-of-chip-technologies/
[5] https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/19/tech/ai-chips-lifecycle-questions
[6] https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/journals/journal-of-micro-nanopatterning-materials-and-metrology/volume-21/issue-01/010901/Review-of-essential-use-of-fluorochemicals-in-lithographic-patterning-and/10.1117/1.JMM.21.1.010901.full
[7] https://www.ccacoalition.org/short-lived-climate-pollutants/hydrofluorocarbons-hfcs
[8] https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/97JD02988
[9] https://chipscommunitiesunited.org/news/forever-chemicals-cool-data-centers/
[10] https://pages.chemours.com/ic-case-study-october-2024.html
[11] https://www.gravel2gavel.com/pfas-hfcs-chemicals-data-center-industry/
