A4 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
Hermiston
farmer places
third in nation
Kristen Corpus captured
third place in the national
and first place in Oregon
for the state yield awards
in the 2016 National Corn
Growers Association Na-
tional Corn Yield Contest.
The Hermiston farmer
achieved her winning yield
of 339.623 bushels per
acre in the No-Till/Strip-
Till Irrigated category with
DEKALB DKC62-08RIB
Brand Blend corn.
In all, 7,972 farmers
from across the United
States entered the 2016
yield contest. Corpus along
with other DEKALB win-
ners were honored at the
2017 Commodity Classic
in March in San Antonio.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017
BUSINESS
Four data centers approved for Hermiston
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Staff Writer
The awards banquet includ-
ed a private concert featur-
ing country music star Josh
Turner.
“It is exciting to see
these farmers push the yield
boundaries, and we con-
gratulate them for their hard
work and success,” said
Jesse Hamonic, DEKALB
Asgrow brand lead, who
presented a trophy to Cor-
pus at the banquet.
In the 2016 contest,
DEKALB farmers captured
seven of the 18 national
awards and 147 first, sec-
ond and third place awards
at the state level. The full
list of DEKALB winners
is available at www.dekalb.
com/yieldcontest.
A proposed data center
campus near Hermiston
took a big step forward
Thursday during a land
use hearings before the
Umatilla County Planning
Commission.
E-commerce titan Am-
azon — doing business
through its subsidiary,
Vadata — wants to build
four new data centers
along Westland and Cot-
tonwood Bend roads, near
interstates 82 and 84. The
company already operates
multiple data centers east
of Umatilla, and two more
campuses at Boardman.
The commission vot-
ed 7-1 to recommend the
county rezone 120 acres of
farmland to light industrial
for Vadata. The Board of
Commissioners will have
final say on land use for
the data centers.
Gary Rhinhart, vice
chairman of the planning
commission, was the only
one to vote against Vada-
ta’s request, saying he was
frustrated with eliminating
more farm ground to ac-
commodate another indus-
trial development.
“I have a problem with
that,” Rhinhart said.
Rhinhart also asked
why the company did not
consider locations on the
east side of the county
toward Pendleton, which
has more available indus-
trial land to sell.
Jim Footh, real estate
manager for Vadata, said
all campuses need to be
connected by fiber optic
cable, and Pendleton is
simply too far from their
existing data centers.
“The distance between
the Pendleton and Herm-
needed to create redun-
dancy and avoid outages.
Several neighbors ex-
pressed concern about
what the project will
mean for their quality of
life. Dan Burnam testified
at the hearing, arguing
the property could still
be used as farmland if it
had a water right. He also
questioned what kind of
buffer would be in place.
Mary Buckallew, who
testified after Burnam,
said she was worried
about what a large indus-
trial campus would mean
for the neighborhood.
“It is a farming area,”
Buckallew said. “It’s go-
ing to change the whole
lifestyle.”
The Umatilla County
Board of Commissioners
will hold another public
hearing on the matter at
9:30 a.m. April 13.
iston areas is just too far
for our connectivity,”
Footh said. “Unfortunate-
ly, that’s just the nature of
our business.”
The Hermiston site has
other advantages, Footh
added, such as access to
nearby high-voltage pow-
er lines. Amazon is also
signed on to use Hermis-
ton’s regional water sys-
tem, which will provide
the roughly 400 gallons
per minute needed to
keep the computer serv-
ers cool.
Footh said the compa-
ny is considering options
to recycle cooling water
for local farms, but did
not have a specific pro-
posal.
Each of the four data
centers would run 24
hours per day and support
up to 40 jobs. Footh said
multiple campuses are
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