The Tucson City Council is preparing to vote to annex county land so Project Blue can tie in to city water and electric to build an AI data center.

A few weeks ago, Pima County Board of Supervisors approved the sale of land to the entity “Project Blue” to build an AI data center. Project Blue is a “development project” whose client(s) is still unknown to the public.

During the Board of Supervisors hearing, representatives from Project Blue, Tucson Electric Power Company, and Tucson Water presented what they intended for the 290 acre piece of county property on the southeast side of Tucson, near the fair grounds. As part of their purchase, Project Blue has promised: 

• "An 18 mile purple pipe extension that will be over-sized in capacity, enabling Tucson Water to facilitate sustainable growth in southeast Tucson and convert existing potable water customers to non-potable sources.
• A new 30-acre aquifer recharge facility that will improve system-wide supply reliability and offer recreation benefits similar to the SHARP facility."

During the hearing Project Blue touted that this was one of the most sustainable AI centers ever proposed. But in recent days, we found out that Project Blue has at least two other proposed AI centers that would depend on potable water, and the proposed AI data center would use potable water for AT LEAST the first 2 years of building.

What is more, reclaimed water is still a precious resource. It is still water. Moving it from one place to another is not “saving water”. 

We also have looked around the country at companies that have installed AI Data centers, promising to use reclaimed water. The trend is that reclaimed water ends up being hard on the machinery (reclaimed water is more caustic). For this and other reasons these promises are always broken, and these companies almost always fail to use the promised levels of reclaimed water.

They also offer the vague promise to "help support electric affordability for TEP” though there is no clarity on what exactly this means. During the Pima County hearing, TEP promised that there would not be a burden placed upon consumers, though only hours after Pima County passed the sale of the land, TEP announced a 14% rate hike!

During the hearing, there was no mention of the other proposed AI data centers. They failed to mention their existence because it would have rendered more questions about the actual sustainability of this project. It is as though they are using the first data center to greenwash their entire project, and break into the market. Once they are in the market, building more centers will be easier. The dishonesty of concealing their other, far less sustainable centers should be very offensive to everyone involved.

Data centers require a cool environment, and tons of water when it is hot. This begs the question: why are they building these data centers in one of the hottest places in North America? 

We believe it is because of how “friendly” to “business" Arizona government is. Arizona seems desperate to bolster their economy by attracting big businesses. And they will sacrifice consumer and environmental protections to draw in business. 

We hear every day about the threats to our water supply. And we are encouraged as citizens to conserve water. But our economic policies seem to live in a different world. For example, Arizona is a leading agriculture state in the country, yet our main crops are crops developed in mesic (wet) regions: GMO corn, cotton, wheat, lettuce… we behave as if we have all the water in the world. We also waste a lot of water in mining projects that don’t only use large amounts of water, but render that water unusable afterward.

The proposal to bring more water-intensive industries into Arizona doesn’t make sense if sustainability is our goal. It will bring in only a few temporary jobs and a small handful of on-site jobs. After all, the whole point of AI is to replace human labor with artificial intelligence. The irony of the promise of jobs for these data centers is that these same data centers will probably replace far more human work with the products of artificial intelligence, and the profits will benefit far less people. 

The other concerning issue regarding Project Blue is how Tucson Water and Tucson Electric Power seem to be representing THEIR interests and wheeling and dealing (in secrecy) and seem to be less concerned with the concerns of the public. Instead of being the intermediary between private interests and the public interest, they seem to almost be part of Project Blue. During the Pima County hearing, they were literally all teamed up, were functioning as a team. 

Furthermore, this entire project has progressed under secrecy: there is no transparency about who the client(s) is/are. The sale was under a non-disclosure agreement until the last minute. And the votes have all been rushed giving little time for public input, or even time for the public to get all the facts. Vague promises have been made, and even these vague promises have been broken. There is little accountability by the government or the private interests in this project. 

We ask our city council to consider Tucson’s future, and abandon these attempts at short term profit that cost us our precious resources—water and energy. This isn’t investing in the future. This is trying to impose technology that overlooks the limitations and needs of our actual region. It is short-term profits for a few at the cost of sustainability.

We warn that we will remember who protected us and who didn’t from this clear exploitation from a company whose shareholders won’t have to suffer the consequences of this industry and its policies. 

A few links to recent news stories, letters to editors, and blogs:

• Huge Tucson data center to use drinking water for 2-3 years
• Watershed Management Group: Pima County’s Plan to Add Multiple Data Centers is Not Compatible with our Region’s Water Resilience
• Letter: No on Project Blue
• Letter: The drip-drip-drip of Project Blue water use

We are organizing this petition in hopes of showing how great the numbers are of citizens who are against this project. We also hope, after signing this, you will call or email the mayor and your (or all!) city council member. Additionally, make your stance on this project public—post your thoughts on social media, share links to help educate people on these grave issues. Facing a hotter and drier world, our policies should be more innovative, not ignoring the challenges we have ahead. Tucson should be a leader in water conservation, and set an example for the rest of the country. 

Find your ward using this map or this map and council member info below:

Office of the Mayor - Regina Romero
Telephone: (520) 791-4201
Email: mayor.romero@tucsonaz.gov

Ward 1 Council Member - Lane Santa Cruz
Telephone: (520) 791-4040
Email: ward1@tucsonaz.gov

Ward 2 Council Member - Paul Cunningham
Telephone: (520) 791-4687
Email: ward2@tucsonaz.gov

Ward 3 Council Member - Kevin Dahl
Telephone: (520) 791-4711
Email: ward3@tucsonaz.gov

Ward 4 Councilwoman - Nikki Lee
Telephone: (520) 791-3199
Email: ward4@tucsonaz.gov

Ward 5 Council Member - Rocque Perez
Telephone:(520) 791-4231
Email: ward5@tucsonaz.gov

Ward 6 Council Member - Karin Uhlich
Telephone: (520) 791-4601
Email: ward6@tucsonaz.gov

Office of the City Manager - Tim Thomure
Telephone: (520) 791-4204
Email: citymanager@tucsonaz.gov

For up to date information and calls to action, go to NoDesertDataCenter.com