Oregon data center growth meets pushback from residents

Oregon has 142 data centers currently in operation or planned, ranking us No. 9 in the U.S. among the states with the most, according to recent Pew Research analysis.

• There are currently 115 operating in the state, with another 27 in the works. The majority are located in Multnomah, Washington, Umatilla and Morrow counties.

The latest: A group of Hillsboro residents, led by City Councilor Kipperlyn Sinclair, is calling for a moratorium on all new development of data centers in the city — where tech giant Intel and others are headquartered — in order to study the facilities' economic, energy and environmental affects.

• Meanwhile, some residents in The Dalles are asking the FAA to investigate whether steam from Google's data center cooling towers are interfering with local aviation.

Zoom out: While the South leads the country in the number of data centers, the West is expected to see a 34% increase from its current total, per Pew.

• More than a third of Americans live within 5 miles of an operating data center.