A data center is a facility containing the physical infrastructure that supports our digital lives.

Typically, a data center is a building that houses computers and servers that provide a wide variety of functions including:

• support for advanced manufacturing
• cloud-based software like shopping & social media apps
• medical imaging & healthcare records
• music & video streaming
• banking & payment processing
• artificial intelligence & more

No. There are different types of data centers depending on the primary function(s), size, and systems operated in the facility. Three commons models include:

• Enterprise: These are usually small, private data centers often built, owned, and operated by a single entity for its exclusive use.
• Colocation: Multi-tenant facilities provide space, power, cooling, and physical security for customer equipment. These facilities are usually small to medium size. There can be one or more tenants within a colocation data center conducting different types of data storage and processing. Colocation data centers are the most common types of data centers found in Hillsboro.
• Hyperscale: Facilities very large in size, designed for rapid scaling and meeting the growing demand for enormous computing, storage, and networking workloads.

As of March 2026, there were 18 data center sites that were either constructed or under construction in Hillsboro.

As of June 2026, there have been three new projects that have submitted development applications to the City. There are now 21 data center sites that are constructed (16 sites at 346 acres), or in for permitting or under construction (5 sites at 124 acres).

Combined these sites make up approximately 470 acres or 8% of the land in the North Hillsboro Industrial Area. For comparison, there are 17,378 total acres in the City of Hillsboro and there are more than 465,000 acres in Washington County.

Additionally, there are five known potential data center sites planned but not yet submitted for permits (177 acres). These numbers represent stand-alone data centers and do not include potential accessory uses.

Many data centers often have tenants that may lease space and services from and have their own equipment located within the data centers. A data center site may contain one or multiple buildings depending on the design and function of the facility.

See a map of data center locations in Hillsboro.

In the next five years, it’s estimated that consumers and businesses will generate twice as much data as all the data created over the past 10 years, according to Jones Lang LaSalle (2024).

Approximately 6 billion people, 74% of the global population, are online today. This represents an increase of 46% since 2010. 2.2 billion people are not yet connected to the internet, according to the International Telecommunication Union (2026).

On average, U.S. households have a total of 22 internet connected devices, according to Deloitte’s Connectivity and Mobility Trends Survey (2023).

The average monthly home internet use has increased from 150 GB in 2018 to more than 750 GB per household in 2025, according to Open Vault Broadband Insights Report (2025).

Many industries, including advanced manufacturing, computer electronics, biotechnology and others, increasingly rely on data processing and support from nearby data centers.

Data centers also serve as critical infrastructure for industries in Hillsboro like advanced manufacturing, biotechnology, healthcare, transportation, fintech, and education. A 2025 study by Jones Lang LaSalle found that 80% of the data centers in Hillsboro are supporting technology industries and development, with the remaining 20% supporting cloud-based computing (15%) and telecommunications (5%). Proximity to supporting data centers can also be very important.

Some of Hillsboro’s land use zones allow data centers. Other zones limit or prohibit them like the most recent industrially designated areas of the Jackson East and Meek Sub-Areas of North Hillsboro.

In most industrial zones, where data centers are allowed uses, this type of development would require a Type II land use application consisting of a public notice, an administrative decision, and the opportunity to appeal. In addition to land use review, new or retrofitted facilities would also require building permits and applicable utility permits.

The Enterprise Zone Program was created by the State of Oregon to encourage recruitment and retention of businesses and jobs across the state. The program is administered by cities, ports, counties, or tribal governments, known as Zone Sponsors. These zones incentivize business investments by abating all local property tax for a certain number of years.

This program is one of the few incentives the City of Hillsboro has to grow and sustain our local economy.

• It allows a 100% property tax abatement for a 3-to-5-year period for eligible businesses within the designated enterprise zone on new investments like buildings and equipment.
  
  
• After the 3-to-5-year period is over, the investment is taxed and provides revenues to local jurisdictions.
  
  
• The program also funds many local workforce development and small business support programs.

The City of Hillsboro is required to processes Enterprise Zone applications in compliance with state law and local policy.

The rules in place at the time of application are the standards that must be used to determine whether to approve or deny an application.

City staff have no discretion to deny an application that meets the standards set forth in state law and local policy. By law, City staff must approve such applications.

The Hillsboro City Council establishes the local enterprise zone and policies, in coordination with other local taxing districts, and must be ultimately approved by the State of Oregon through its Oregon Business Development Department.

The Enterprise Zone was reauthorized last by the Hillsboro City Council in 2017, and the boundary was expanded in 2024.

The 2026 Oregon Legislature approved HB 4084 modifying the state enterprise zone laws to place a moratorium on data center applications starting in June 2026.

Data centers are one of the types of businesses that can qualify for tax abatement under the Enterprise Zone Program.

Eligible businesses are primarily firms that provide goods, products, or services to businesses or other organizations through, but not limited to:

• advanced manufacturing
• food processing
• information technology
• shipping
• assembly
• fabrication

More information can be found on the City’s Enterprise Zone Program webpage.

Hillsboro established its Enterprise Zone program in 2006 and has two approved areas: North Industrial and Downtown & South Industrial.

• View a map of Hillsboro’s Enterprise Zone Areas

The North Industrial Area was most recently amended in 2025 to include additional parts of the Jackson East Area which was planned for industrial development in 2020.

The program requirements for applicants of Hillsboro’s Enterprise Zone, were last updated in 2017. Read the summary guidelines.

Local zone sponsors are responsible for applying for state designation, as well as creating, amending, managing, and seeking redesignation to maintain eligibility.

All of the Zones must periodically renew their state eligibility. The statewide Enterprise Zone Program is set to expire on June 30, 2032, while Hillsboro’s enterprise zone is currently scheduled to expire on June 30, 2028.

Oregon law (ORS 285C.105) requires that local jurisdictions or sponsors appoint a local zone manager to manage the Enterprise Zone program including the processing of applications.

Hillsboro established its Enterprise Zone in 2006 and appointed the City Manager or their designee as its Zone Manager and the City redesignated its Enterprise Zone in 2017.

• The application process contains several steps, including a pre-authorization conference, the signing of an agreement implementing the policies adopted by the City Council, and authorization by the zone manager and the Washington County Assessor’s office.
  
  
• When the local zone manager or designee signs an agreement, they are doing this in an administrative capacity. City staff do not actually approve the tax exemptions when they authorize an application, they are only approving eligibility to participate in the Enterprise Zone program.
  
  
• When applications are received, City of Hillsboro staff consult with Washington County to verify eligibility, Hillsboro School District to notify of future potential school fees, and Business Oregon as needed to clarify state laws and rules.

State law requires that applications which meet the minimum program requirements must be approved per ORS 285C.140.

Following application submission, the zone manager must conduct a preauthorization conference, which is a deliberate review between the applicant and the local officials (the county assessor's office is given opportunity to participate). The zone manager must prepare a written summary of the conference, which becomes part of the application. Information in the application may be amended up until the start of the initial exemption period.

If the zone sponsor has imposed additional requirements (and/or if the eligible business seeks an expanded abatement period from 3 to 4 or 5 years), the business must enter into an agreement with the zone sponsor. The zone manager must then post the contract on its web page for at least 21 days. Once the 21-day posting has occurred, the zone sponsor must approve the application if it meets the applicable requirements of state law. Once approved, the zone manager must fill out and sign an approval form withing five business days and send the application to the county assessor for final approval of the authorization application. During the preauthorization conference and the application review period, the zone manager seeks to determine whether the application meets the requirements of state law and local policy.

The zone manager must deny an application if it makes a finding that:

• (a) the applicant does not fulfill any basis for eligibility under ORS 285C.135;
• (b) the applicant is unwilling or unable to unambiguously commit to an action/obligation as required under ORS 285C.140(2);
• (c) the application was submitted too late as described in OAR 123-674-2000 and 123-674-2100;
• (d) the location of proposed qualified property is outside the enterprise zone boundary and no relevant boundary change is pending (or possible); or (e) any other reason that precludes authorization.

Unless one of these denial standards applies, the zone manager must approve the application.

Authorization does not mean that a business will receive an exemption. Rather, after qualified property is placed in service, the eligible business must submit an exemption claim with the county assessor, to initiate and continue the property tax abatement.

The county assessor makes an independent assessment at the time the exemption claim is submitted regarding eligibility.

Oregon law (ORS 285C.160) requires that the enterprise zone sponsor post the terms of an enterprise zone agreement on its website for 21 days prior to the agreement becoming effective.

The law also states that “The name and any confidential or proprietary information of the business firm may not be made public under this subsection.” This is the reason why the business name is redacted on these notices.

As a local zone sponsor, Hillsboro can create additional Enterprise Zone requirements. The Hillsboro City Council has elected to do that.

Some of the local requirements that the City of Hillsboro has enacted include:

• minimums for wage and benefits paid to employees
• annual summaries of locally procured goods and services
• a Community Service Fee, which is utilized for:
  • small business support
  • workforce development programs
  • scholarships for first-generation college students

This funding is contributed back to the City of Hillsboro by the company to provide community benefits like supporting local and countywide economic development efforts. It does not fund general services.

Companies receiving an exemption must submit a compliance letter to the City of Hillsboro annually addressing each of the local requirements.

No, under state law, the City is required to appoint a zone manager who acts as the agent and representative of the enterprise zone in regard to any and all ministerial, intergovernmental, technical or promotional functions of the zone sponsor. However, under state law, the Council might be able to retain certain discretionary decisions and/or approve the City entering into certain agreement, if the Council chooses to do so.

Since state legislation (HB 4084) passed to impose a moratorium on Enterprise Zone approvals for data centers in March 2026, Hillsboro has seen 17 Enterprise Zone applications for data centers.

Because the State-imposed moratorium begins on June 6, 2026, many data centers submitted their applications recently so that they could be reviewed prior to the moratorium effective date.

• All of the 17 applications received are for sites that had either already been purchased for future data center use (10 applications) or were already in operation as data centers (7).
• The applications span 8 companies at 11 sites.
  • Four of the sites are vacant and would be constructed in the future.
  • Seven of the sites are existing data center facilities that would be reinvested in.

Each application covers a period of 3 to 5 years. That is the maximum exemption period allowed. After the exemption period ends, the exempt assets must be taxed.

Buildings would be taxed permanently moving forward, and machinery and equipment must be taxed for at least one year before it is disposed, replaced, or relocated. The investments can receive the tax abatement for one 3-to-5-year period.

If a business makes additional new investments in buildings, equipment, and/or personal property, they could be eligible to apply for additional Enterprise Zone exemptions, provided they meet the program requirements in effect at the time of application. The same assets cannot be exempted twice. The incentive benefit is only realized by a company if/when they make the investment and would otherwise be taxed on it.

Given the approval process timeline, the City of Hillsboro does not anticipate any additional data center applications could be submitted after May 7, 2026, and be able to go through the approval process prior to the June 6, 2026, moratorium date, thereby creating a pause in new data center applications.

Yes, this is expressly authorized by state law (see, e.g., OAR 123-674-3500 and OAR 123-674-3100). However, only one 3–5-year exemption may be authorized for each investment. So, for example, a company may desire to build out its property in three phases. In phase one, the company constructs the actual building and submits an application to exempt the building from taxation in years 1-5. In year two, the company plans to install various machinery and equipment, and submits a separate application for this investment. Assuming the application is approved, the company’s new machinery and equipment would be exempt for 3-5 years depending upon the application request.

The key point here is that each “investment” receives only one exemption, but a company may make multiple investments and seek approval for an exemption for each separate investment. Additionally, each exemption is for only a 3–5 year period. Thus, if an exemption does not begin for five years after the application was submitted, the company is not receiving a 10-year exemption. Rather, the property was not taxable for years 1-5 because it did not exist yet. Once it is put into service in year 6, it will be exempt from taxation in years 6-10. In other words, the total exemption period cannot currently exceed 3-5 years no matter when the exemption period actually begins. Additionally, three consecutive investments per application are allowed. Each investment receives its own separate 3-5 year exemption period starting when the investment is placed in service.

State law is very clear that applications must be submitted before the property/investment seeking an exemption is constructed, installed, etcetera. However, state law does not provide a deadline by which such property must be put into service after approval of an application. The contracts basically approve eligibility for participation in the program, they do not approve the actual exemptions. Businesses must still continue to meet the requirements of state law and local policies at the time the property seeking an exemption is put into service, and if those requirements are not met, the tax exemptions will not be applied.

The enterprise zone program encourages investments by exempting “property” from taxation that is constructed or installed after an application is approved. Thus, for example, equipment and new buildings can receive a 3-5 year exemption after construction or installation. As such, when a contract is approved for the time period in 2046-2051, there will not be 20 plus years of exemptions. Rather, property put into service in 2046 would receive a tax exemption for that five-year period (2047-2051), as long as the requirements of the program are met. The exemptions apply only to new “property” that is invested in as part of the program. Other property, including the underlying land, and any existing structures remains taxable.

No, it would not have been legal for staff to reject applications that met the requirements of state law during this time period.

While the legislature could have provided authority to reject applications during this interim period, it didn’t do so. As such, City staff had to operate under the existing terms of state law.

Under state law (ORS 285C.140(6)), the City “shall” approve an application if:

• (1) the applicant is an “eligible business” under state law;
  and
• (2) the applicant has agreed to abide by the conditions of the enterprise zone program set forth in state law and local policy.

Because the applications approved by staff met these minimum requirements, there was no discretion to reject such applications.

Yes, under state law, the City may impose additional conditions for businesses to participate in the Enterprise Zone program, and the City has done so on many occasions.

Under the state’s administrative rules, such conditions will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

• (1) the requirements shall not vary dramatically or erratically over time for business firms interested in investing in the zone and seeking special benefits or waivers;
  
  
• (2) the requirements shall not be arbitrarily applied, implemented or enforced, in that the sponsor shall be consistent in not only setting conditions, but also in how to handle compliance issues;
  
  
• (3) the requirements may differentiate among relevant business firms for a given situation in OAR 123-668-2000(1) or (2) in terms of investment size, the firm’s industry and so forth, but such differentiation shall be:
  • (a) based on definable characteristics;
  • (b) consistently applied in its own regard;
  • and (c) related to an apparent or expressed public purpose;
    
    
• (4) the requirements may entail economic costs to the firm because of payments to the sponsor or other entities, or of actions undertaken by the firm, but these costs (less any other consequent, material benefit to the firm) in relation to OAR 123-668-2000(2)(b) to (d) shall not exceed 25 percent of the tax savings associated with the entire property tax abatement, before the effect of school support fees under ORS 285C.162 or 285C.405.

With a written agreement, however, in the case of OAR 123-668 2000(1) or (2)(a) the firm may accept higher costs based on its own consideration;

• (5) the requirements shall not demand procedures, practices or investments in excess of anything undertaken in the firm’s industry or related industries throughout the world, such that the sponsor shall be prepared to show that such a demand has been accomplished in the normal course of business elsewhere without apparent, extenuating circumstances;
  
  
• (6) no requirement may cause or compel actions by the firm that have the potential to pose a significant other legal, financial or business threat to the firm, including but not limited to:
  • (a) surrendering significant rights, privileges or immunities under state or federal law;
  • (b) labor relations that may compromise practices by the firm in other locations where it operates in the United States;
  • or (c) publicizing information unrelated to the administration of a local requirement that is otherwise proprietary, confidential, or threatening to the firm’s market competitiveness or contractual obligations or to that of any third party.

Thus, based on these standards, the City will need to be mindful of when/if it makes changes to the conditions, as well as how such conditions are implemented. The City could choose to work on additional requirements for the remaining time period that the current zone is in effect, or, if the City chooses to seek reauthorization of the zone, it could impose new conditions at that time.

Yes. Data centers pay property taxes like many other entities in the City of Hillsboro. Data centers are often very expensive facilities to build and equip resulting in extremely high property values. In addition to paying taxes on land and buildings, businesses in Washington County also pay property tax based on the value of equipment, fixtures, and furniture. How taxes are calculated and charged depends on where the data center is located and the specific details of the facility.

In some areas of Hillsboro, data centers may be eligible for property tax incentives also known as abatements, if they meet the requirements of state and local tax abatement programs. The most common program is called the Enterprise Zone.

Eligible businesses within Hillsboro’s Enterprise Zone may qualify for a temporary property tax abatement on new investments for a 3 to 5-year period. After this period, regular property taxes apply.

In Hillsboro, all data centers and their tenants, including those that are receiving a property tax abatement, consist of an assessed value and exempted real market value (for those with a property tax abatement) of approximately $11 billion.

In 2025, the 12 data center-related entities receiving property tax abatements consisted of approximately $7.2 billion of exempted real market value. Total taxes imposed on data center-related entities in 2025 were approximately $61.1 million.

Yes. Data centers that receive tax incentives through the City of Hillsboro Enterprise Zone program pay additional fees including:

• A one-time Enterprise Zone Application Fee equal to 0.1% of the total estimated value of investment and capped at $50,000.
  
  
• An annual Community Service Fee based on the annual abated taxes relative to employment (jobs) created and retained at the site. Entities that provide more employment relative to the amount of tax abatement qualify for a lower or no Community Service Fee in that year. The maximum Community Service Fees are 33% of the abated property tax amount in years 1– 3 and 50% in years 4 – 5.
  
  
• A School Support Fee applied in years four and five of the exemption period in the amount of 15% of the abated tax. This fee is separate from the Enterprise Zone Community Service Fee and funding goes to the local school districts and the State School Fund.

All data centers, whether they are receiving tax abatements or not, also pay development application and permit fees, system development charges to support new infrastructure, and franchise utility fees for use of utility infrastructure.

Community Service Fees paid by Enterprise Zone recipients help fund local workforce development and small business development activities, including:

• Financial support for approximately 4,648 first-generation and low-income college students through the Portland Community College Future Connect Program.
• Funding for more than 850 students in the Portland Community College Quick Start Program.
• Support for the Westside Pitch Fest, which provides dozens of early-stage entrepreneurs and emerging companies a platform for visibility, resources, and support.
• Development of the Hillsboro School District Youth Apprenticeship Program which supports numerous high school students.
• Creation of the Advanced Manufacturing Training and Education Collaborative of Hillsboro (AM-TECH) which is a workforce partnership between educators, workforce trainers, industry, and community organizations.
• Support for Centro de Prosperidad with Centro Cultural which provides hundreds of local businesses support and resources to grow in Hillsboro.
• Funding for Adelante Mujeres’ Cocinemos program provides a small business training course focused on the food industry.

These investments provide community members, especially those with greater economic prosperity needs, with resources, training, and career access support.

No, it would not have been legal for staff to reject applications that met the requirements of state law during this time period.

While the legislature could have provided authority to reject applications during this interim period, it didn’t do so. As such, City staff had to operate under the existing terms of state law.

Under state law (ORS 285C.140(6)), the City “shall” approve an application if:

• (1) the applicant is an “eligible business” under state law;
  and
• (2) the applicant has agreed to abide by the conditions of the enterprise zone program set forth in state law and local policy.

Because the applications approved by staff met these minimum requirements, there was no discretion to reject such applications.

A major part of economic development is to foster industries that support each other. Thus, for example, while certain data centers are utilized for cloud-based computing and telecommunications, numerous data centers, including the majority of data centers in Hillsboro, are used to support advanced manufacturing and technology industries and development.

In other words, the majority of data centers in Hillsboro are used to support other industries to create and sustain local jobs.

Data centers bring economic activity to the community and support a variety of short-term and long-term living-wage jobs including software engineers, computer scientists, cyber security professionals, electricians, and construction trades including builders, plumbers, electricians, and maintenance professionals.

In 2023, data centers in Oregon created 9,310 direct jobs and 38,380 indirect and induced jobs with more than $4.1 billion in labor income, according to PwC (2025).

Additionally, Community Service Fees paid by Enterprise Zone recipients help fund local workforce development and small business development activities, including:

• Financial support for approximately 4,648 first-generation and low-income college students through the Portland Community College Future Connect Program.
• Funding for more than 850 students in the Portland Community College Quick Start Program.
• Support for the Westside Pitch Fest, which provides dozens of early-stage entrepreneurs and emerging companies a platform for visibility, resources, and support.
• Development of the Hillsboro School District Youth Apprenticeship Program which supports numerous high school students.
• Creation of the Advanced Manufacturing Training and Education Collaborative of Hillsboro (AM-TECH) which is a workforce partnership between educators, workforce trainers, industry, and community organizations.
• Support for Centro de Prosperidad with Centro Cultural which provides hundreds of local businesses support and resources to grow in Hillsboro.
• Funding for Adelante Mujeres’ Cocinemos program provides a small business training course focused on the food industry.

These investments provide community members, especially those with greater economic prosperity needs, with resources, training, and career access support.

In Hillsboro, power for data centers is primarily provided and monitored by Portland General Electric (PGE). The Bonneville Power Administration, PGE, and the City of Hillsboro coordinate closely to plan for new development in Hillsboro to prepare for future energy demands and infrastructure needs.

In 2025, the Oregon Legislature passed the “POWER Act” (HB 3546) that ensures big energy users, like data centers, pay for the additional demand they place on Oregon’s electric grid. The POWER Act established a special rate category for large users of electricity to ensure they cover their own costs, instead of shifting those costs onto households and small businesses. The Oregon Public Utility Commission is responsible for implementing and enforcing those requirements.

Tax abatements are temporary economic incentives to support capital investment in an area to help the area’s economy grow and support livability for current and future generations. If a business receives a tax abatement, the business does not pay property taxes on the abated portion of their assessed value in the short term but pays property taxes on their full assessed value in the long term.

To be clear, the enterprise zone program does not provide a 100% tax abatement on all aspects of a data center’s taxable property. The exemption applies only to new investments in things such as:

• buildings
• equipment to complete a building, like a HVAC system
• personal property, such as computer equipment

All of these types of property are taxed in Oregon for businesses. Other property, such as the underlying land, remains taxable.

During the period of abatement, data centers are not paying general education taxes on the portion of their investments that are under abatement. General education taxes are dollars collected by the school district in which the data center is located, that are redistributed through the State School Fund in accordance with the School Funding Equalization Formula. Therefore, in a vast majority of districts (including the Hillsboro School District), the impact of the abatement is not experienced locally as local taxes are paid into the statewide fund, which then redistributes all money collected statewide to school districts.

Once the tax abatement ends after 3 to 5 years, the business pays taxes on the total assessed value that comes on the tax roll. Meanwhile, data centers contribute tax revenues that help fund education through increased income tax revenues from construction workers and permanent employees. Also, while data centers add considerable tax revenues to support the delivery of local services such as police, fire, and emergency medical response, they require very little support from these same public safety emergency services compared to some other businesses and residential areas.

More About Oregon’s K-12 School Funding Equalization Formula

After the passage of Measure 5 by Oregon voters in 1990, the Oregon State Legislature created the K-12 school equalization formula in 1991 to establish a “measure of fairness” between all districts in Oregon – where the amount of money received to run schools is not overly dependent on the wealth (local property tax resources) within the district.

The funding formula starts with the amount of local revenue in each school district and adds State School Fund dollars such that funding across all districts is equal (after accounting for differences in statutorily defined cost factors). If local revenues are high, state aid is low. If local revenues are low, state aid is high. In effect, the formula converts local school revenue resources into part of available statewide funds for all schools. For the State School Fund, it does not matter what a district receives in property taxes or other local revenues (except in the rare case of districts whose local revenue exceeds the amount identified through the Equalization Formula); the only revenue that matters is the statewide sum of state and local dollars.

Source: K-12 School Funding Equalization: Formula Revenue Distribution to School Districts and Education Service Districts; Research Report #5-24; August 2024; Legislative Revenue Office

Data centers have been present in Hillsboro for more than a decade and during that time, property values have generally been stable with an increase trend in Hillsboro for residential, commercial, and industrial properties. The connection between data centers and property values is not determined. 

Impacts to wetlands, flood plains, natural resources, and habitat areas are evaluated during development permitting, with impacts sought to be avoided or mitigated for.

Air quality impacts are permitted and monitored by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

Noise is not constantly metered, but if noise complaints or issues were to arise, they would be evaluated against and enforced using Hillsboro Municipal Code Subchapter 6.24. 

Hillsboro Water Department (HWD) categorizes customers by eight classes, and tracks usage for planning purposes by class. HWD does not have a specific ‘Data Center’ class, so estimated numbers are based on information provided by the Economic Development Department (Ec Dev) according to their records. All requests for Data Center listings are routed through Ec Dev.

In 2025, HWD estimates they served about eight different data center companies, at approximately 14 sites in the Hillsboro service area. This estimation is based on site addresses provided by other sources.*

*It is important to note that a section of Hillsboro receives its water service through Tualatin Valley Water District, so HWD does not have water demand numbers for those locations. 

No, the WWSS is being built to serve the future needs of all customers in Hillsboro and the region, not specifically data centers. The WWSS will have an initial treatment capacity of 60 MGD, with 15 MGD allocated to Hillsboro Water.

Plans for a secondary water supply for Hillsboro began 30 years ago, before data centers were even a consideration. Hillsboro last added to its water supplies in the 1990’s, with the expansion of Barney Reservoir, and since then the city has continued to grow. That growth is seen across all customer classes, not just in the industrial/commercial classes, which include data centers.

In addition, the new water supply won’t reach north Hillsboro’s industrial area until at least the mid-2030’s, as that part of the pipeline was deferred to minimize rate impacts due to rising project costs. 

The focus of the WWSS is to bring resiliency and redundancy to Hillsboro’s water supply. As stated above, additional water will allow for growth in all classes - including industrial and commercial sectors, schools and public facilities, and residential areas like South Hillsboro. Currently, Hillsboro only has one water source – the Joint Water Commission. If anything happens to that source, Hillsboro does not have another option to fall back on - unlike other water providers in the area such as Forest Grove, Beaverton and Portland. The WWSS will provide a second reliable source for all Hillsboro customers.

Additionally, the WWSS is being built to withstand the potential Cascadia Subduction Zone Earthquake, so water recovery time after a major disaster will be much less than most other water systems in the Pacific Northwest – for all customers. Water system resiliency protects public health, provides fire suppression, and delivers water fit for human consumption in a major seismic event.

No, based on 2025 data, data centers receive about 1.76% of Hillsboro’s total water 
demand. Hillsboro used about 6.3 Billion Gallons (BG) in 2025, with 3.2 BG used in total industrial processes. About 111 million gallons (MG) were used at data centers, or about 3.4% of total industrial demand. 

For reference, the combined 2025 water usage of all Hillsboro data centers (~14 sites) does not even exceed the water usage for a solar panel producing company that operated in Hillsboro during the 
2000/2010’s and has since gone out of business. That one industrial site used about 150 
MG per year, compared to the 111 MG used by the 14 data center sites referenced above. 

Finally, Hillsboro currently has a treatment capacity of 41.7 Million Gallons per Day (MGD) 
but only peaks (highest usage day in a year) at around 30 MGD, so there is room for growth 
in all customer classes, even without the addition of t

No, data centers are classed as either commercial or industrial, which both pay higher base (fixed) and usage rates than typical residential customers. 

 Table Showing 2026 Class Comparison for 5/8 meter using 8 ccf (6000 gallons), which represents typical single-family residential use: 

No, water rates are designed so that all customers, including residential, commercial, and industrial users, pay their fair share based on how they use the City’s water system and how much water they use. 

Cost-of-Service studies are conducted about every five to six years to ensure that each of the customer classes are paying their fair share, so residential rates will not rise due to an increase of data centers. 

Residential meters (5/8”) pay a $21.94 monthly fixed charge and most customers’ water use falls in first-tier rate of $3.99 per ccf (748 gallons) up to 4 ccf, or the second-tier rate of $4.58 per ccf up to 8 ccf. Industrial users like data centers pay a $512.16/month fixed charge for a 2” meter and pay $5.17 per ccf (748 gallons) for usage.

Hillsboro is committed to environmental compliance and stewardship of our natural resources.

All wastewater in the City of Hillsboro goes to the sanitary sewer system for treatment, and the City does not discharge to groundwater. Clean Water Services (CWS) provides sewer treatment services for the City of Hillsboro. CWS has extensive environmental regulatory requirements in their discharge permits to meet standards set by the Clean Water Act. They use state-of-the-art treatment facilities to clean wastewater to some of the highest standards in the nation before water is returned to the Tualatin River (cleanwaterservices.org).

No. PFAS compounds have never been detected in Hillsboro's water supply.

The Tualatin River, Hillsboro's current source water, has shown no detections. These compounds are far less prevalent in Oregon than in other parts of the country. Hillsboro Water tests for all six PFAS compounds regulated by the EPA, and as part of the EPA's Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule 5 (UCMR 5), also tested for 29 additional unregulated PFAS. None were detected.

Hillsboro's future additional water source, the Willamette River, has also shown no detections for PFAS at the river intake where water is drawn for treatment. When the Willamette Water Supply System (WWSS) comes online, the new treatment plant will utilize an advanced multi-barrier treatment approach — including granular activated carbon (GAC), ozone, and UV — to effectively remove PFAS. This design exceeds Safe Drinking Water Act requirements and is built to address emerging contaminants before they are formally regulated by the EPA.

• Read more questions about data center water use in Hillsboro