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THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2021
US expands Pfi zer
virus boosters to teens
Shots for 16,
17-year-olds
By LAURAN
NEERGAARD and
MIKE STOBBE
Associated Press
Alan Brandt
A view inside Facebook’s Prineville Data Center.
Meta implementing water
projects in central Oregon
Facebook parent
company runs data
center in Prineville
By MICHAEL KOHN
The Bulletin
Crook County is situated
in one of the driest parts of the
state — it’s one of two coun-
ties in Oregon to be com-
pletely in the highest level
on the U.S. Drought Moni-
tor. Now, one of the county’s
biggest employers is trying to
combat the drought with an
aggressive water restoration
program.
Facebook’s parent com-
pany, Meta, which operates a
data storage center on the out-
skirts of Prineville, is imple-
menting two projects it says
will improve water availabil-
ity in Crook County.
The social media giant
says the projects will help it
to achieve its water conser-
vation goals, which include
being “water positive” by
2030, meaning that it will
return more water to the envi-
ronment than it consumes at
its facilities.
Meta, which also owns
Oculus, Instagram, Messen-
ger, and WhatsApp, plans to
accomplish this feat by part-
nering with environmental
groups and federal regula-
tors to restore degraded hab-
itats in Oregon and fi ve other
states. It is also upgrading its
technologies to make its data
centers more water effi cient.
Technological develop-
ments in the last decade, as
well as the use of outside air
for cooling, have allowed
Meta’s data centers “to oper-
ate 80% more water effi -
ciently on average compared
to the industry standard,” said
Melanie Roe, a spokesperson
for Meta.
“We see opportunities
for additional gains in the
coming years, particularly
as our infrastructure grows,
and we’ll need to develop
water-effi cient designs for
diff erent climates,” Roe
added.
Meta is under a micro-
scope in the places where it
operates as its data centers
use large amounts of water to
cool their servers and main-
tain optimal humidity lev-
els. In Prineville, data centers
source their water from the
municipality.
In Prineville last year,
Meta used 445,000 cubic
meters of water, equivalent
to 117.5 million gallons of
water — enough water to fi ll
178 Olympic-sized swim-
ming pools. Meta’s use of
water is increasing. The data
center, a collection of build-
ings, is still under construc-
tion and when complete will
be a 4.6 million square foot
campus.
To counter that water use,
Meta is helping to fund an
aquifer recharge project with
the city of Prineville. A sec-
ond project is restoring the
degraded Ingram Meadow in
the Ochoco National Forest.
Meta says the aquifer
recharge project utilizes the
natural storage found under-
ground in the city to store
water during cooler, wet-
ter winters. A portion of
the water can be recovered
during hotter summer periods
when water is less available.
The
project,
which
became operational earlier
this year, works by convey-
ing a portion of winter stream
fl ows in the Crooked River
to the local groundwater sup-
ply through injection and
extraction wells.
Authorities in Prineville
are confi dent that the work
being done won’t leave
Prineville high and dry.
“The water management
tool allows the city to meet
peak demands by taking
advantage of the natural stor-
age space found in geologic
formations
underground,”
said Eric Klann, Prineville’s
city engineer.
Klann said the project
recharged 34 million gallons
of water in 2020 and 98 mil-
lion gallons this year. Next
year, 140 million gallons will
be recharged, he said.
The system is cost-eff ec-
tive and resilient, said Klann,
and he sees it as a good long-
term solution for the city to
manage its water needs.
“We are committed to
continually exploring ways
to support the community’s
water needs in an environ-
mentally sustainable way,”
he said.
Bruce Scanlon, manager
for Ochoco Irrigation Dis-
trict, added that he is not
aware of any impacts on local
water resources that can be
attributed to the data centers.
“My guess is that if we
were going to see some-
thing, it would have become
clear last year because of the
severity of the drought,” said
Scanlon.
Meta’s other project in the
area, the Ingram Meadow
Restoration Project, spans
15 acres in the headwaters of
Auger Creek, in the Ochocos
northwest of Prineville.
Logging and overgraz-
ing dried out most of the
meadow in the early 1900s.
Meta’s goal here is to refi ll
the water table and increase
water availability in the late
summer months.
Meta says in addition to
improving a water source
for humans, rehabilitating
Ingram Meadow will also
benefi t elk, as well as fi sh in
the streams and creeks down-
stream from Auger Creek.
Prineville
has
also
received help from Apple,
which also has a data center
in the city. Similar to the Meta
project, the Apple-spon-
sored program stores drink-
ing water in the airport area
aquifer for use during peak
demand in summer.
These and other conser-
vation projects have helped
Prineville keep a lid on its
water use. In 2008 the city
used 625 million gallons of
water from its valley fl oor
aquifer. In recent years the
city’s demand has ranged
from 582 million gallons in
2019 to 665 million gallons
in 2020, according to data
provided by Klann.
While Prineville residents
may be concerned about the
data center’s water use, few
in town question the posi-
tive impact these massive
facilities have on the local
economy.
Since Meta opened the
data center in 2011, the com-
pany has invested $2 bil-
lion in the facilities and
employed hundreds of work-
ers. Prineville now boasts
more than 370 jobs in data
processing, hosting, and
related services, according
to the Oregon Employment
Department.
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U.S. health authorities
again expanded the nation’s
booster campaign Thurs-
day, opening extra doses of
Pfi zer’s COVID-19 vaccine
to several million 16- and
17-year-olds.
The U.S. and many other
nations already were urging
adults to get booster shots
to pump up immunity that
can wane months after vac-
cination, calls that intensi-
fi ed with the discovery of
the worrisome new omi-
cron variant.
On Thursday, the Food
and Drug Administration
gave emergency authori-
zation for 16- and 17-year-
olds to get a third dose of
the vaccine made by Pfi zer
and its partner BioNTech
— once they’re six months
past their last dose. And
hours later, the Centers for
Disease Control and Pre-
vention lifted the last bar-
rier as Dr. Rochelle Walen-
sky, the agency’s director,
issued a statement strongly
encouraging those teens to
get their booster as soon as
it’s time.
Boosters are import-
ant considering that protec-
tion against infection wanes
over time and “we’re facing
a variant that has the poten-
tial to require more immu-
nity to be protected,” Wal-
ensky said.
About 200 million
Americans are fully vacci-
nated, including about 4.7
million 16- and 17-year-
olds, many of whom got
their fi rst shots in the spring
and would be eligible for a
booster.
VACCINATIONS
FOR CHILDREN
AS YOUNG AS
5 JUST BEGAN
LAST MONTH,
USING SPECIAL
LOW-DOSE
PFIZER SHOTS.
BY THIS WEEK,
ABOUT 5
MILLION 5- TO
11-YEAR-OLDS
HAD GOTTEN A
FIRST DOSE.
“Vaccination and get-
ting a booster when eligi-
ble, along with other pre-
ventive measures like
masking and avoiding large
crowds and poorly venti-
lated spaces, remain our
most eff ective methods for
fi ghting COVID-19,” Dr.
Janet Woodcock, acting
FDA commissioner, said in
a statement.
The Pfi zer vaccine is the
only option in the U.S. for
anyone younger than 18,
either for initial vaccina-
tion or for use as a booster.
It’s not yet clear if or when
teens younger than 16 might
need a third Pfi zer dose. But
Walensky said the CDC and
FDA would closely watch
data on 12- to 15-year-olds
because if they eventually
need boosters, “we again
will want to act swiftly.”
Vaccinations for children
as young as 5 just began last
month, using special low-
dose Pfi zer shots. By this
week, about 5 million 5- to
11-year-olds had gotten a
fi rst dose.
The
extra-contagious
delta variant is causing
nearly all COVID-19 infec-
tions in the U.S., and in
much of the world. It’s not
yet clear how vaccines will
hold up against the new and
markedly diff erent omicron
mutant. But there’s strong
evidence that boosters off er
a jump in protection against
delta-caused
infections,
currently the biggest threat.
“The booster vaccina-
tion increases the level of
immunity and dramati-
cally improves protection
against COVID-19 in all
age groups studied so far,”
BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin
said in a statement.
Complicating the deci-
sion to extend boosters to
16- and 17-year-olds is that
the Pfi zer shot — and a sim-
ilar vaccine made by Mod-
erna — have been linked
to a rare side eff ect. Called
myocarditis, it’s a type of
heart infl ammation seen
mostly in younger men and
teen boys.
The FDA said rising
COVID-19 cases in the U.S.
mean the benefi ts of boost-
ers greatly outweighed the
potential risk from the rare
side eff ect, especially as
the coronavirus itself can
cause more serious heart
infl ammation.
Health offi cials in Israel,
which already gives boost-
ers to teens, have said the
side eff ect continues to be
rare with third doses.
A U.S. study this week
off ered additional reassur-
ance. Researchers from
children’s hospitals around
the country checked med-
ical records and found the
rare side eff ect usually is
mild and people recover
quickly. The research was
published Monday in the
journal Circulation.
Associated
Press
reporter Matthew Perrone
contributed to this report.
O ld fashioned
Call 503-325-2203 For Info
C hristmas
in the Flavel House Museum
T
he air is cold, the leaves have fallen,
and the Flavel House is decorated
for Christmas... traditionally, a night
with Santa would be right around the
corner, but this year, to keep Santa safe
and healthy for his annual journey, we
are doing things differently. The elves
have delivered a mailbox located on the front porch of
the Flavel House. Children are invited to drop their
letter to Santa in the box between now and December
19th. Then, return to visit the museum any day
between December 21st and 23rd to pick up a special
personalized stocking gift from the big man himself.
Merry Christmas and Stay Santa Safe.
For more information about this event or other Clatsop
County Historical Society activities, please call
503-325-2203 or e-mail: info@astoriamuseums.org
Our friends at Providence Seaside Hospital along with
Kent and LJ Easom have helped us Stay Santa Safe by
making this event possible.