ICYMI: A recording of the Klickitat County Commission’s workshop on data centers

by Swen Carlson and Emily Harris | Klickitat County

September 21, 2026

Water pipes inside a Google data center in The Dalles, Oregon. The blue pipes supply cold water and the red pipes return the warm water back to be cooled. The photos is made public by Google via https://datacenters.google/discover-more/photo-gallery/

About 150 people made it to the Klickitat County Commissioners’ Sept. 3 workshop on data centers — reflecting a deep interest in the issue that is igniting communities nationwide. But because it was a workshop, during which no votes can be taken, the meeting was not available to attend virtually and was not recorded.

The Klickitat County Commission changed their rules in 2025, ending virtual attendance at workshops. Then-Commissioner Todd Andrews explained the commissioner’s reasoning in an article covering the change by reporter Rodger Nichols.

“This is so department heads and employees could come and not be nervous as we’re brainstorming and talking some of those ideas,” Andrews was quoted as saying in the January 2025 article. “Then Tuesday mornings, you can sit there and listen to us hash out these ideas that we gathered on Thursdays, and then have public comment. That public comment would be more informed, and further educate us on people’s beliefs, and then we would vote on it.”

Nichols also covered the Sept. 3 workshop for our news partner The Columbia Gorge News. Thanks to him, you can now listen to that meeting here. For additional coverage, see also Lorrie Fox’s reporting for the Goldendale Sentinel.

Swen Carlson

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Swen Carlson is Uplift Local's Community Editor in Oregon. He has lived in The Dalles for the past decade and got his start in journalism with Uplift Local's Gorge Documenters program.