A proposal to build a data center on federal land near Hermiston places eastern Oregon at the center of a question with implications across the state: how much public land, water and electrical capacity should be committed to a rapidly growing industry, and who should pay for the infrastructure it requires?
California-based energy company Copia has applied to develop the Charlestown Data Center and Battery Energy Storage System on approximately 106 acres managed by the Bureau of Land Management in Umatilla County. The company submitted a draft development plan in May. The application remains a proposal; federal approval has not been reported.
The Hermiston site is among at least a dozen data center proposals involving more than 17,500 acres of BLM land across six Western states. It follows a July 2025 federal executive order directing agencies to make appropriate federal property available for data center development and accelerate related permitting. If approved and built, Charlestown would be Oregon’s first data center on federal public land.
Umatilla County is already one of Oregon’s principal data center locations. The Hermiston application adds a different question to the region’s experience with the industry. A project on BLM land would require a federal decision about the use of property managed for multiple public purposes, alongside decisions about the water, power and other infrastructure needed to operate the facility.
Oregon is weighing those demands at the state level. In September, Gov. Tina Kotek directed state agencies to pause work on unapproved requests for state-owned property connected to data center projects. The directive covers such actions as leases, easements and land sales through July 1, 2027, unless superseded by further state action. It does not extend to federal BLM property, so it does not halt the Hermiston application.
The governor has also convened a Data Center Advisory Committee to examine the industry’s effects on electricity costs, water supplies, infrastructure and communities. Its recommendations could inform legislation in 2027. The committee’s work will address a statewide industry whose projects can differ considerably in size, location and demand for resources.
For the Hermiston proposal, the scale of its eventual water and electricity use cannot be established from its acreage alone. Those figures, along with its proposed cooling system and power arrangements, will be central to evaluating the project. Data centers need substantial electricity to run servers and cooling equipment, but their water requirements vary with the technology they use and the source of their supply.
Federal ownership of the site would not, by itself, give an operator unrestricted access to Oregon water. Businesses generally need state authorization to take groundwater or surface water, subject to legal exceptions. A water application would identify the proposed source and use, allowing the state to examine whether the request can be permitted. Those details would also show residents and existing water users which watershed or groundwater supply is at issue.
Electricity presents a separate economic test. Serving a large customer may require new lines, substations or other investments. The effect on household and business bills depends on the utility involved, the costs of those improvements and the rates approved for recovering them. Oregon’s 2025 POWER Act was enacted to make large energy users, including data centers, pay costs attributable to their demand. Its implementation will be consequential as utilities assess future projects.
The proposal near Hermiston does not mean a data center is planned for federal land in Southern Oregon. No Southern Oregon site has been identified in the reported group of proposals, and a facility in Umatilla County would not draw water from the Rogue Valley merely because both locations are in Oregon.
Still, the federal land application establishes a development path that could be considered elsewhere. Federal agencies manage extensive property in Southern Oregon, including land near communities, streams and groundwater used by households and farms. If a developer proposed a facility there, its effects would depend on the precise site, its water source, its electrical connection and the capacity of local infrastructure. Residents could then evaluate a defined project through its applications and environmental review, rather than assume that the Hermiston proposal predicts a local outcome.
For now, the decision immediately before federal officials concerns eastern Oregon. The broader decision facing Oregon is how to assess future data centers before commitments of land, water and electrical infrastructure are made. The Hermiston application brings federal property into that discussion while the state develops its own approach to growth across Oregon.