Facebook riles tiny Oregon town
Residents clash with firm over a landing spot for an undersea cable to Asia
A battle playing out in a tiny Oregon town with no stoplights or cellphone service is pitting residents against one of the world’s biggest tech companies.
Locals in coastal Tierra del Mar are trying to stop Facebook from using property in their quiet community to build a landing spot for an ultra highspeed, undersea cable connecting America with Asia.
Representatives of the social media giant say Tierra del Mar is one of the few places on the U.S. West Coast suitable for the cable, which will feature the latest fibre optic technologies. It will link multiple U.S. locations, including Facebook’s huge data centre in the central Oregon town of Prineville, with Japan and the Philippines, and will help meet an increasing demand for internet services worldwide, the company says.
But locals say vibrations from drilling to bring the submarine cable ashore in this village of some 200 houses might damage home foundations and septic systems. They also point out that Tierra del Mar, arrayed along a pristine beach, is zoned residential. If the county and state allow the project, they say, more commercial ventures will come calling.
“This is a huge precedent. Once you open the shores to these companies coming anywhere they want to, Oregon’s coast is pretty much wide open season,” resident Patricia Rogers told county officials in written remarks.
Tierra del Mar, 105 kilometres southwest of Portland, is home to a mix of professionals and retirees who share a love of the unspoiled beach that is fringed with coastal pines and the deer, bald eagles and rare seabirds that inhabit the area. It has two businesses, a rock shop and antiques store, and no cell service, apparently because providers don’t consider it profitable enough.
In recent years, locals fiercely opposed a plan by investors to turn a former farm just to the north into a high-end golf course. The site became a nature area.
Residents’ attention turned to Facebook in 2018 when a subsidiary bought the empty beachfront lot for the cable landing from former NFL quarterback Joey Harrington. The property is about the size of 10 tennis courts.
Locals worry the project will pave the way for cell towers, power junctions and additional cable sites.
Rogers, who owns a house adjacent to the Facebook lot, stood on the beach in stormy weather Wednesday as waves charged the shore. A sign toppled by the high tide said “Keep Facebook off our beach.” Rogers pointed to two other empty lots nearby.
“If Facebook gets (approval), well, two companies will get those, and we’ll have three of these drilling projects within a half a mile of each other,” she said.