ÃÛÌÒÓ°ÏñAV

Residents were also highly dubious of assurances from city officials and developers the city will adequately enforce planned local government requirements that the project be “water positive,� meaning it will replace more water than it uses, through methods such as buying new water supplies.

Nearly 800 people packed an auditorium at Mica Mountain High School on the southeast side Wednesday night to hear speaker after speaker express deep concerns about the city’s ability to properly manage water use by the $3.6 billion project.

Project Blue plans to build two large data center complexes within city limits, with construction starting next year and extending into the 2030s. A third data center complex for Project Blue will be built outside city limits, city officials have said. Only the first complex of up to 10 individual data centers has an identified location, on 290 acres near the Pima County Fairgrounds on the far southeast side in unincorporated Pima County, just outside city limits.

The audience also featured a sizable crowd of supporters belonging to various trade unions giving the project high praise for its potential to create thousands of good-paying construction jobs over the next decade. The supporters, far outnumbered by opponents, spoke as loudly and forcefully to advocate for their side as did the critics.

Project Blue supporters have said they’ll create 180 long-term jobs paying average $64,000 annual salaries, on top of construction jobs. But the project will also be the city’s biggest water user, with the two Tucson-based data centers consuming a total of 1,910 acre-feet of water annually.

That would be enough to serve up to about 7,500 Tucson-area homes, based on longstanding Tucson Water estimates that an acre-foot will serve four local households a year.

Often, the competing messages from Project Blue officials, opponents, supporters and city officials were drowned out by boos, catcalls, applause and wisecracks from opponents in the crowd filling the spacious auditorium.

Opponents carried and waved signs saying, “Not one drop for data,� “Water for people, not for billionaires,� “The river will dry� and “Stop Project Blue.�

When union members touted the construction jobs and the wages they would pay, audience members responded, “Amazon is anti-union,� a reference to the just-revealed memo that said a division of Amazon, Amazon Web Services, will be Project Blue’s operator.

And when Tucson City Manager Tim Thomure said 17 golf courses that use reclaimed water each use the same amount of water annually as will Project Blue during its first phase of operations ending in 2029, people in the crowd shouted, “That’s not relevant� and “that’s immaterial.�

A similar response rang out when Thomure followed up by asking the crowd, “When was the last time you didn’t have water due to a golf course?�

The session was organized by the city, whose City Council will ultimately have to agree to annex the first Project Blue parcel of 290 acres before Tucson Water can deliver it water. The council is slated to take up the issue in August.

Officials of the city, Tucson Electric Power and Project Blue developer Beale Infrastructure spoke.

A resident who spoke told the audience that because she grew up in the area of the Superfund water cleanup site on Tucson’s south side, “it’s hard for us to feel comfortable really due to how we’re being impacted.�

“One thing I’m here for is the unions. We don’t have any guarantees in this contract that we will be hired locally,� said that speaker, apparently referring to the 47-page development agreement between the city and the company. “The union is what makes the city stronger.�

She added she wants the project to bring Tucson a lot of jobs, but “I want these to be jobs that are safe for us, not jobs thrown at us without any thought and process about what it will do to our communities. Bring the jobs but keep the thought for what it will do to the kids and grandkids in the future.�

Christine Casler of Project Blue developer Beale Infrastructure said, “We are actively working with union organizations� to insure locals will be hired, although she could offer no guarantees about it.

Just one of the projects the company will do to carry out its pledge to make the project “water positive� will be treating a lot of wells that have been shut down due to contamination by PFAS-based “forever chemicals,� said Casler, Beale’s water director.

“The guarantee and commitment to be water positive is outlined in the development agreement,� she said. “At the bare, bare minimum .. . we can go get water; or go fund PFAS treatment to replenish 100% of our use, drop for drop.�

For the project to recharge the aquifer, it will have to undergo a legal process with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality to obtain an aquifer protection permit that will regulate its discharges, she said.

“Nothing can be put into the aquifer without complying with this permit,� Casler said. “Anything we put down the drain, there will be compliance and enforcement of the permit.�

An audience member shot back, “Sounds like DuPont,� an apparent reference to a $1.185 billion settlement last year it and other companies reached over a class action lawsuit filed by numerous cities whose wells have suffered from PFAS contamination.

Someone asked Beale officials “what kind of recourse will we have if those things don’t come true? I just assumed you people will be long gone before then and we will be left with the effects.�

“You don’t have any prior projects so we’re just trusting you people with no stake in our community,� the speaker told Beale officials, to loud applause.

The provisions to make the project “water positive� will be contained as requirements in the development agreement that Project Blue will ultimately sign with the city, Casler said.

“These aren’t commitments. These are requirements,� she added.

When Thomure told the crowd that Project Blue would use 1,910 acre-feet annually when it’s complete, a crowd member replied, “No, no, in gallons, please. How much is that compared to a golf course, a house?�

“It’s four golf courses at buildout,� the manager said of Project Blue’s ultimate, annual water use in Tucson.

To make Project Blue “water positive, venture capitalists are willing to purchase paper water. That’s what they use to say they’re water positive. It’s not actually water positive, because as we all know, you can’t make new water,� a speaker said. He was implying that the project will have legal rights to water but not actual water to replace what it uses from the city’s water system.

Thomure, a former Tucson Water director, acknowledged the terms “wet water� and “paper water� can be confusing to those who aren’t “water geeks.�

But “to have wet water in Arizona, you have to have rights to that,� he said. “We call those legal rights to water ‘paper water.’ When you drink water, you can only drink it if you have paper water behind it.�

All the “water positive� projects Blue will carry out will include both wet and paper water, he said.

What projects would bring as many construction jobs to Tucson, asked a speaker representing one of the trade unions supporting the project.

“Tell me more about 3,000 construction jobs created. People are saying they’re temporary. Are they?�

The Tucson area currently doesn’t have any other projects of this scale, Thomure said. There is an American Battery Factory project that’s promised to create 1,000 jobs waiting to break ground at a south-side location, he said, “but we don’t have any other projects (like this) in our pipeline.�

A speaker who said she has a background working on issues involving the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires environmental reviews of all federally controlled new projects, said she sees that during the planning process, “We tend to put water stewardship off to one side and development on the other side.�

“The first thing the city has to do is figure out how much water do we have and how we keep that water sustainable instead of promoting a project that promises a magical solution somewhere in the future,� the speaker said.

That is exactly how Tucson feels about water, replied Thomure, adding, “I continue to provide facts about that.�

A speaker said “there is no recourse� if Project Blue doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do with water under the development agreement. The agreement says the project will use drinkable water only for two years until an 18-mile line can be built to deliver it reclaimed water, but “breaking those caps won’t result in the city cutting off water, there will just be more charges,� that speaker said.

“Charging more does not give water back,� the speaker said to loud applause. “What about unintended consequences? I feel we don’t have any guarantees. Once this is up and running, it’s over with.�

Thomure said the development agreement does establish guarantees, adding, “What has come up tonight and come up in a few places leading up to tonight is that a lot of folks understand water allocation and question what is the ultimate limit?

“We’ve been hearing this quite a bit. It’s something the city will be taking into consideration as we move forward,� he said. “How do we address that concern?�

As for how to enforce the two-year limit on drinking water use, “We will make sure we address that accountability piece as well� in the final development agreement, he said.

The city doesn’t have that 100% worked out yet, he said to boos and shouts of “Why not?�

“We’re getting input from your questions why not. We’re getting input from your questions, if you want to hold me accountable for posting answers,� Thomure said.

“You’re playing me,� someone in the audience said.

“I’m not playing you. If I came up with 100% of the answers now you would think it’s predetermined.�

The city will hold a second public meeting on Project Blue on July 31, from 5 to 7 p.m. The location hasn’t yet been determined.