If there was one sound that dominated the public response during Monday night’s public meeting on Project Blue, it was a raucous and enthusiastic “BOO!”
The crowd of about 1,000 packed into the Tucson Convention Center to hear a presentation on the proposed data center shouted it as representatives of local utilities and the company developing the project introduced themselves, shouted it when presentations used the term “water positive” and yelled “bullshit” at promises of renewable resources at the proposed site.
A particularly boisterous group of teenagers repeatedly stood on their chairs, held signs high above their heads, and screamed themselves hoarse in forceful disapproval of any claim in favor of Project Blue.
“Allow them to introduce themselves so we can hear what they have to present,” Tucson spokesperson Andrew Squire beseeched the crowd yelling its displeasure during the first minutes of panelist introductions. “You can still boo your hearts out afterwards.”
If Monday’s meeting was any indication of how many Tucsonans feel about bringing a massive data center to the desert, the response was a resounding no — underlined by a mix of anger at how public officials have presented the project and distrust at the water and energy claims made by the project’s boosters.
It was the third public meeting ahead of Wednesday’s Tucson City Council study session to discuss the massive and secretive Project Blue data center proposal for the first time.
What to watch
Next meeting
The Tucson City Council is slated to discuss the proposal for the first time at a study session in-person and livestreamed on YouTube Aug. 6 at 12:30 p.m. at City Hall, at 255 W. Alameda.
NDAs
Elected officials for both the city of Tucson and Pima County say they will reconsider the NDA agreement process following the public outrage over Project Blue.
Referendum
Among the shouts at Monday’s meeting was a request to “let us vote.” To get a referendum on the ballot, city law says interested parties must submit a required number of signatures in support of the effort.
The controversial data center project is one of the largest development projects ever considered by the city or county.
Most local residents weren’t aware of the project until June, when the Pima County Board of Supervisors voted to sell 290 acres of unincorporated county land to Beale Infrastructure, a firm that develops data centers across the country.
In the weeks and months since that vote, a broad coalition called No Desert Data Center has sprung up to oppose the project.
“The people of Tucson say no data center in the desert!,” said an Instagram caption posted after Monday’s meeting on the organization’s page. “As Project Blue unfolds, the community is learning more and more about the real character of this secretive data center and is standing up to defend our crucial water supply and say no to private profits of public resources.”
“You do not come to our desert and disrespect it.”
Daniel Garcia’s family has lived in Tucson for six generations. He cherishes the stories that his mother and grandmother told him about evenings gathering at the Santa Cruz River, a reality he says isn’t possible in today’s period of prolonged drought.
“My family roots used to be as deep as the water table, but unfortunately that has gone down,” said Garcia. “We believe bringing Project Blue into our community would be a negative impact because the No. 1 resource we need to protect is our water.”
Garcia was one of many speakers at Monday’s meeting who questioned Project Blue’s water use, and stressed water’s importance in Tucson’s desert landscape.
Project Blue promises to eventually build a reclaimed water pipeline to the 290 acres of land proposed for the project, near the Pima County Fairgrounds. Developers say it would use potable water for the first several years of the project.
Scott Schladweiler, the deputy director of Tucson Water, said the project would be net water positive and “replenish at least 100% of annual consumptive water use.”
However, he said “water positivity is still something that does need to be reviewed and discussed.”
Christina Casler, a director on Beale’s development team focusing on water infrastructure, said she understood the concern about the center’s water use but promised it would be offset in some form.
“I know there’s some skepticism about water positive. I can admit that. I can hear that. But every drop, we will also have requirements for the water replenishment —either the charge or funding crucial projects, like PFAS remediation, crucial projects to bring more water into this system.”
The crowd responded with shouts of disbelief.
For decades, south side Tucson residents have grappled with water contamination linked to industrial waste, including trichloroethylene, or TCE, and more recently, PFAS compounds known as “forever chemicals.”
“I’m sorry but you don’t get it. We are drawing from a dwindling source,” landscape architect Caryl Clement said to the panel during public comment. “You do not come to our desert and disrespect it.”
Deni Ritchey
“I am just sick of our elected officials not listening to us and prioritizing short term profits over the environment, honestly. I love living here, and I love the Sonoran Desert. How much longer are we going to be able to live here, and will we risk the desert so that a couple of billionaires get a little bit more money in their pocket that they don’t even need?” Ritchey, whose first public meeting she had ever attended was about Project Blue, said. “I rearranged my entire schedule to be here because I just felt like I would regret it if I didn’t do everything I could.”
Gloria Ramirez
“I think the people that represent us that we voted for should have shared more information with us sooner so that we would have understood what’s going on sooner,” said Gloria Ramirez, who has lived in Tucson since she attended the University of Arizona and met her husband there. “I want everybody to be real careful with our resources. I have grandkids and I want them to grow up in Tucson.”
Eliseo Gomez
“My students and their families and the community members that I serve are targets of ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customers Enforcement]. For those reasons, I’m in this fight,” said public school teacher Eliseo Gomez, who came out to the meeting on the first day of school.
He saw Amazon as connected to the harm of immigration enforcement in the mostly Latino community where he teaches. Arizona Luminaria reporting revealed the company behind the data centers to be Amazon Web Services. A series of investigative reports have shown that AWS hosts a data management system run by software company Palantir and used by the federal government to track immigrants.
Jana Segal
“The land proposed for the data center has already been zoned for certain kinds of industrial use that includes data centers. So some kind of development will happen whether we like it or not that requires water,” said Segal, who is the lead of Sustainable Tucson’s water committee. The non-profit holds regular trainings and meetings on sustainability issues for Tucson residents. “At least the Mayor and Council could require some guardrails to assure us that they don’t use more water than promised or the water could be shut off.”
Tom Tarter
“I’m wondering, are they going to keep putting the water back in the ground so it becomes drinking water, or is water going to be diverted?” asked Tarter who had lined up behind the public comment chairs even before the meeting began. He lives near the Southeast Houghton Area Recharge Project, a water recharge station used to replenish the aquifer. “I’m not for it. It’s crazy in the desert. It’s a water guzzler and we don’t need water guzzlers.”
Richard Hines
Richard Hines, an electrician, takes a more measured approach to Project Blue. To him, 10 years of expected construction jobs are not short term, and he doesn’t see a positive outlook for his type of work.
Hines, who is a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 570, works on Tucson Electric Power’s Roadrunner Reserve II system, a large battery system to store solar power. “We need the work,” he says.
A press release from project developer Beale Infrastructure said TEP was developing new solar and energy storage capacity “that would allow it to serve the first phase for Project Blue.”
John Washington contributed reporting.
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