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From:Serina Murphy
To:Public Comments
Subject:EXTERNAL - Public Comment: Item 10.3, Data Center Moratorium - September 14, 2026
Date:Monday, September 14, 2026 11:45:25 AM
Good evening, Councilmembers. My name is Serina.
I'm here tonight because last month, I wrote to all seven of you asking for a moratorium on
new data centers. Two of you wrote back. Councilmember Marques and Councilmember
Ramirez, thank you. Sincerely.
You didn't just answer an email. You answered a neighbor who was asking whether this city
was willing to slow down long enough to protect what we share. And tonight, that question is
finally on the agenda.
So I want to be clear: vote yes on this moratorium.
But understand: a pause is not protection. A pause is the bare minimum. The hard work is
what comes next.
And before you decide how hard you're willing to work, let me tell you what you're up against.
Amazon opened its first Oregon data center in Morrow County in 2011. A farm town.
Groundwater, like ours. Their wastewater cools the servers, concentrates, and goes back on the
fields.
In 2022, a cattle rancher tested the wells himself because he was worried about the water.
Since 2024, the Oregon Health Authority has identified at least 634 domestic drinking-water
wells with unsafe nitrate levels, some nearly ten times the federal limit. Families reported
miscarriages and rare cancers.
Amazon disputed that it caused the contamination, pointing to a nitrate problem that predated
its facilities.
In 2026, Amazon paid $20.5 million to settle claims that its operations contributed. It admitted
nothing.
Fifteen years. That is how long families waited while the causes and responsibility were
fought over.
A check cannot undo fear. It cannot undo illness. And it cannot undo grief.
Now, researchers at the University of Illinois and Purdue studied towns like ours this year.
Their words: the company brings lawyers, engineers, and financial analysts. The town brings
part-time elected officials who are, quote, "simply not equipped to effectively negotiate."
That's not an insult. That's just the matchup. And it's why I'd ask you to stop seeing the people
in this room as something to defend against. We're the ones who read the documents. We're
the closest thing to a legal team you've got. Use us.
Because here's what happened when we weren't around.
June 6, 2022. This council hired a development director who didn't live here. Councilmember
Marques asked for someone with roots in Gilroy to fill the position. She lost, three to two.
Twenty minutes later, you paid $175,000 for Amazon's environmental study. Four to zero. No
public comment. I wonder why?
I'm not here to make anyone a villain. If every decision I regretted were printed in meeting
minutes, I'd be grocery-shopping in another zip code. But that study came back with two
harms that couldn't be fixed, and the person you hired (who again didn't live here) signed the
decision. That's not a character flaw. It's just human. Nobody lies awake over water they don't
drink. It's the same reason we want police officers living in the cities they protect; you look
after a place differently when it's yours.
And I took a look at the monitoring plan, so you wouldn't have to.
It asks Amazon to do some good things. Plant trees. Encourage employees to carpool here
from wherever they live. Buy clean power. Fill out a flood form. Fine. Do those things.
But none of that tells a mom whether the water in her kitchen is the same today as it was last
year. None of it tells a farmer what's happening under the field. None of it tells a family what
they're breathing.
And the plan leaves Amazon in charge of checking its own work.
That is not trust. That is hope. And hope is not a safety plan.
And here is what should stop you cold. Gilroy's own fact sheet says nitrate is already a
concern in our groundwater. Then it says those contaminants are "not directly tied to the AWS
project." Before the facility has even turned on.
That is not proof this project will harm us. It is proof we're already writing the sentence they'll
use if something does: "The problem was here before us."
And if we don't measure now, how will anyone prove otherwise later?
Every drop we drink comes from the Llagas basin, and we share it with Morgan Hill and San
Martin. So here's the hard part. It's a big responsibility. It protects all of us.
Hire independent experts who don't work for Amazon. Test our air, water, and soil before
Phase 1 is fully operational. Test every year. Publish every result. Make Amazon carry the
burden of proving safety. Not Gilroy families the burden of proving harm. And then decide,
with the facts in front of you, whether Gilroy ever needs another one.
In 2019 you paid for an economic strategy. It looked at this exact parcel and said: mixed-use
innovation district. Its words: residential, office, R&D. Medical offices. Professional and
scientific services. Places where people work and live. Not a warehouse full of servers that
employs almost nobody.
And it said...twice... that Gilroy needs to compete with Morgan Hill.
So let's look at what Morgan Hill is doing, shall we? Because they're looking at us. Mostly for
what not to do.
They read about Gilroy, passed a moratorium, and the same month landed six hundred jobs
building the equipment data centers run on.
That's not keeping up. That's being the lesson.
I started by telling you what you are up against: a company with a 15-year head start, lawyers,
engineers, and more money than most countries.
But here is what you have: more than 7,500 people asking for no more data centers and
independent experts who do not work for Amazon.
You have neighbors like Gilroy Community Action who read the documents because
somebody had to.
We are not here to fight you. We are here because nobody else is coming.
My mom used to say: one stick breaks. A bundle does not.
Gilroy is the bundle.
Look behind me. We are here.
Vote yes tonight. Then do the hard work with us.
Thank you,
Serina