MALAGA — A former orchard and gravel mining plot could be converted into Microsoft’s Malaga data center campus’ cooling water disposal site for an estimated $16.8 million.
Chelan Douglas Regional Port Authority commissioners were briefed on the cooling water site plans, including a reimbursement agreement with Microsoft, for the projected $16.8 million project at a Tuesday board meeting.
“Everything is trending well. We have a good site. It’s a perfect way of getting started off with Microsoft,” said Jim Kuntz, port CEO. “The question is the budget and making sure Microsoft is committed to say, ‘We’re funding the budget and let’s proceed.’”
Microsoft’s data center campus on the former Lojo site — with a beginning count of three buildings and a total goal of six buildings — is about .89 miles away from the selected cooling water disposal site, the former GBI site. The GBI site sits 7 miles downstream of the Senator George Sellar Bridge, port documents said.
The GBI site was purchased by the port for roughly $1.9 million from GBI Holding Co. in summer 2022 with the goal to resell it to Microsoft. The reimbursement agreement included Microsoft paying back the land acquisition cost initially forked over by the port.
The port snagged the 67-acre, eight-parcel GBI site, with plans to use it for wastewater from the evaporative cooling of Microsoft’s data center, 819,000 gallons annually per building, at the Lojo site. According to Kuntz, work on the GBI site will include 9 acres of “spray fields” and a cooling waterline, and a water pipe, estimated to be installed in 2024.
“We’ve got to get this (the reimbursement agreement) signed because we have been out on the land acquisition cost for a long time,” Kuntz said. “They want us to do some work in 2024; they want us to put the waterline in in 2024. That’s important. I think it needs be operational in 2025 when the first building comes on line.”
The site is currently vacant; however, debris traced to its agricultural footprint, including irrigation materials, were recorded as “scattered about.” Contaminated soils, including lead, DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) and arsenic, on the property were also noted, according to port documents. RH2 Engineering evaluated the feasibility of the GBI site as a “dedicated disposal site,” said port documents, and pinpointed “feasible areas” for a cooling water disposal site.
The engineer’s report on the feasibility of the site was submitted to the Washington state Department of Ecology in November, according to Stacie de Mestre, port economic development and capital projects director. De Mestre added DOE’s main concern is that there is no discharge into the Columbia River and what will be “left behind” on the property, such as minerals.
“The biggest risk in all of this is getting (Washington state) Department of Ecology (approval); that is a big concern we all have,” Kuntz said. “Early in the project, we talked to Ecology … kind of what we’re doing at the GBI property. Ecology, at a fairly high level, thought this is a probably wise use of the property.” Kuntz didn’t elaborate on his statement.
