Facebook hits rough waters in tiny Oregon coastal town
TIERRA DEL MAR, Ore. — A battle playing out in Oregon is pitting residents of a tiny coastal town with no stoplights or cellphone service against one of the world’s biggest tech companies.
Locals in Tierra del Mar are trying to stop Facebook from using property in their quiet community to build a landing spot for an undersea cable connecting America with Asia.
Representatives of the social media giant say Tierra del Mar is one of the few places on the West Coast suitable for the ultrahigh-speed cable. It will link multiple U.S. locations, including Facebook’s huge data center 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 project is allowed, 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.
The Tillamook County Board of Commissioners voted 2-1 in favor of the project after hearing testimony Thursday.
“Once it is done, it is my hope that the community is not going to even know it is there,” Commissioner David Yamamoto said. He noted the project is similar to other uses, like electrical facilities, that have been permitted.
Residents plan to appeal to a state board.
Tierra del Mar, 65 miles 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.
Tierra del Mar 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 opposed a plan by investors to turn a former farm just to the north into a high-end golf course. The site ultimately opened instead as a state nature area.
Residents’ attention turned to Facebook in 2018 when a subsidiary bought the empty lot for the cable landing from former NFL and University of Oregon quarterback Joey Harrington. County records show Edge Cable Holdings, USA, paid him $495,000 for the beachfront property, about the size of 10 tennis courts.
Locals worry the project will pave the way for cell towers, power junctions and additional cable sites.
Facebook representatives told county officials the horizontal directional drilling will last about a month, and all that will remain is a manhole cover. They said they carefully chose the Tierra del Mar site, avoiding areas where fishermen trawl and keeping to places that allow burial of the cable so nets won’t snag on it. They also had to skirt undersea canyons and federally protected fish habitat.