Beat
15 entries
HeraldNet
The Snohomish County Council voted unanimously for an emergency moratorium pausing new data center development in unincorporated Snohomish County for six months while it writes a permanent policy. The ordinance requires a public hearing within 60 days and can be renewed for another six months.
The Daily Herald
The Daily Herald's editorial board argues Snohomish County should keep data centers away from its water supply during a drought that left state snowpack at 53 percent of median in April. It cites Skagit County's June 1 moratorium on new data centers, a proposed Seattle moratorium, and Arlington's Project Cascade, a roughly 1.2 million-square-foot facility Amazon confirmed as a delivery-support project requesting 9.5 megawatts and about 44,000 gallons of water a day.
The Daily Herald
Snohomish County PUD fielded eight large-load service inquiries in 2025, double its previous average of about four a year, with requests ranging from 3.5 to 150 megawatts; none so far are data centers. The utility generates about 6 percent of the power its customers use, buys the rest from the Bonneville Power Administration, and requires developers to pay infrastructure costs upfront under its growth-pays-for-growth model.
The Daily Herald
The Daily Herald's editorial board backs Snohomish County's plan to convene a civic assembly of about 40 randomly selected residents over three weekends in April and May 2026 to draft recommendations on county government's use of AI. The county council voted 3-1 in July 2025 to use the process; invitation letters go out to residents in late February.
Snohomish County Tribune
SNO911 answers Snohomish County's non-emergency line with Ava, an AI assistant built by Seattle firm Aurelian that handled more than 180,000 calls in its first 12 months, including 2,500 in 48 hours during the November 2024 windstorm. A second tool, Cora, now assists 911 dispatchers in real time with location lookup and agency procedures.