Data center developer Beale Infrastructure says it is moving forward with Project Blue, this time promising a greener proposal that will use a new low-water air-cooling technology.
The company outlined the changes publicly for the first time Wednesday through a letter shared by county officials Wednesday and a news release.
“We appreciate and have carefully considered the feedback received from the Pima County Board of Supervisors, staff, and community members regarding the project’s original plan and design,” the letter reads.
The next step is for county administrators to review the proposal, Lesher wrote.
That announcement comes after weeks of uncertainty over the future of the massive data center following public outcry over developers’ efforts to bring the project into the city of Tucson.
The No Desert Data Center Coalition released a statement shortly after Beale’s release, saying they were “exploring every option the community has to stop Project Blue.”
“All of the supervisors were engaged by the developer team before coming up with this release in order to make this a better fit for Arizona,” Supervisor Matt Heinz told Arizona Luminaria. “They did a bit of a listening tour with the supervisors.”
Heinz added that despite Beale not being required to further engage with the supervisors, he was reassured “that we have a willing partner despite how they were treated by the city. This low-water use technology is a better fit, especially in light of the community input this summer.”
Supervisor Jen Allen has been against Project Blue since the beginning. “I am still shocked that they keep coming back,” Allen told Arizona Luminaria. “I might be in the minority in the BOS, but I’m in the majority with the community.”
“The best thing for them to do is walk away,” Allen said. If the project moves forward, however, Allen said, “I’ll never concede that there is no way to hold an entity like them accountable, what that accountability looks like, I’m not entirely clear.”
This time, the proposed data center faces a somewhat different landscape following a slew of new ordinances and rule changes created to address gaps in transparency and oversight revealed during the data center debate this summer.
Tucson adopted an ordinance in August requiring large water users to apply for city service and show their conservation efforts. On Sept. 3, Pima County passed a series of policy changes related to non-disclosure agreements, and Tucson has initiated the process as well.
Only weeks ago, the Tucson city council voted unanimously against bringing the data center — tied to tech giant Amazon — into city limits.
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According to the Beale letter, the new design “will consume no water, potable or otherwise, for industrial cooling.” The letter acknowledges the data center will use some water for kitchens and bathrooms.
The initial proposal projected the use of hundreds of millions of gallons of water a year, with the first few years requiring access to Tucson’s potable water supply.
That’s no longer on the table — a spokesperson with the city of Tucson said the data center couldn’t access Tucson’s water supply without annexation into city boundaries.
“The City has ceased all work on Project Blue as directed by the Mayor and Council,” spokesperson Lane Mandle said in a statement on Aug. 27. “The only path to water service for that property from Tucson Water was through annexation. Without annexation there is no water service from Tucson Water.”
It’s unclear what water sources exist at the site without Tucson Water.
Arizona Department of Water Resources spokesperson Doug MacEachern told Luminaria the final user would have a few options, which could include groundwater at the site, access through a municipal water provider, or the use of long-term storage credits.
Because Tucson is in an Active Management Area — a state-level designation that limits water access in areas relying heavily on groundwater — Project Blue would need state approval to drill a new well, including filing a notice of intent and obtaining a permit.
“In the last couple of months, no applications have been submitted to us under the names Project Blue, Beale Infrastructure, or Humphrey’s Peak LLC,” MacEachern said.
A special agreement request from Beale Infrastructure and Tucson Electric Power to supply energy to the data center has been filed with state regulators to lock in energy for the first phase of the project. Community statements in opposition have flooded the case docket since the request became public.
“Importantly, this updated design and the selected cooling technology will not increase the energy ultimately requested by the project from TEP, for its initial phase, or for its full build-out,” according to the letter.
Beale promises the project will not raise rates for other electricity customers. The news release also says a future phase of the project would require a second agreement with TEP, subject to state approval.
The company says it would work with Pima County on community investment opportunities, and will not seek out any property tax incentives related to the project.
“Unlike most data center projects around the county, Beale is not asking for property tax incentives, often a necessary component of a data center project’s cost competitiveness,” the letter from Beale states.
Beale may, however, still be eligible for tax relief: under Arizona’s 2013 Computer Data Center incentive, qualifying data centers are exempt from state and local sales tax and use tax on their purchase of equipment for up to 10 years — an investment anticipated to be $24 billion for the initial Project Blue proposal.
According to the memo from Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher, the county will review Beale’s new proposal.
“In addition to reviewing the overall approach, particular attention will be given to any potential impacts and opportunities for mitigating them through additional developer-funded community investments in areas like workforce training, broadband infrastructure, neighborhood revitalization, water and clean energy infrastructure, and others, with a focus on potential investment in underserved and high-poverty communities.”
Heinz said Beale wants to reset things with the community. “I hope this release will really clear the air. The low-water use is a really big first step,” Heinz said.
Ongoing public opposition
“Tucson rejected Amazon’s Project Blue, but Beale and TEP aren’t taking no for an answer,” according to the statement released by the No Desert Data Coalition. “We know we can beat this data center again because the people of Tucson are more determined to stop this harmful project and protect our home than Amazon is to build it.”
“There are no tweaks Beale and Amazon can make to their plan to make a massive water and energy guzzling data center safe for our desert community,” the statement reads.
Sisters Norma and Margo Itule, along with Florence Johnson, showed up at the Sept. 16 Pima County Board of Supervisors meeting to express their loud opposition to the data center.
After Supervisor Matt Heinz explained his backing of the project, Norma interrupted the meeting by yelling out, “No!” She held up a sign that read: “A.I. Data centers are Water & Energy Vampires.”
Florence held a sign reading “Recall Matt Heinz.”
“We show up,” Margo Itule said about how they’ve been organizing against the data center. “We write letters to supervisors, to the city.”
Florence Johnson said, “There’s just not enough water.” She said that even if the data center is air-cooled, and won’t use as much water as previously explained, “There’s the energy thing. It’s going to cost us a lot in power.”
This is a developing story that will be updated.
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