The Pima County Board of Supervisors approved a binding agreement between the county and Beale Infrastructure, the developers of the Project Blue data centers complex, on several "community benefit investments" the company commits to.
County supervisors passed the agreement by a 3-2 vote, with Supervisors Andrés Cano and Jen Allen voting "no."
Members of labor unions spoke to the board during the Tuesday meeting's call to the audience portion to support the agreement and the data center project at large, while other members of the public, including some from the No Desert Data Center Coalition, spoke out in opposition.
The agreement negotiated between county administration and Beale outlines $15 million in community investments along with the developer's pledge to match 100% of the data centers' energy use with renewable energy under terms the developer committed to in early November, County Administrator Jan Lesher said in a memo to the board last week.
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Key aspects of the agreement are that the data centers will be air-cooled instead of water-cooled; that water for "domestic applications like kitchens, bathrooms and fire suppression systems" will be obtained from a source approved by the Arizona Department of Water Resources; and that Beale Infrastructure "will use commercially available means" to match its energy consumption with renewable energy, but details in the proposed agreement on how Beale will do so are sparse.
Cano said the county needs more good-paying jobs in the region, but he doesn't believe Project Blue is the way to get them.
"Throughout the United States, communities are warning us when governments approve massive data center deals without enforceable guardrails: harm to public health, strain on water and energy, and residents losing their right to say 'yes' or 'no.' We cannot rush deals like this for short-term gains, because the costs do not stay short-term. They linger, in our bodies, in our neighborhoods and in our public trust," Cano said.
Supervisor Andrés Cano Â
"Our community has lived the price of 'trust us,' we have lived the consequences of secrecy, we have lived the damage done when public health is treated as an afterthought, when residents are asked to carry the risk while someone else collects the reward," he continued. "That is why I cannot support Project Blue in its original or current form."
Allen, the other "no" vote, said the economic benefits touted by supporters of the data center project do not outweigh short- and long-term costs.
"Our vote (in June) opened up the floodgates, and now we're all going to have to deal with the consequences. The floodgates of not just what's happening on the 290 acres of (county-owned land), but looking at what's happening in Marana, what could be happening in Sahuarita, what could be happening on Davis-Monthan (Air Force Base)," she said. "Data centers now saw an opening and they've jumped in and are wedging that opening into something larger, and we are still not prepared for the impacts and the consequences of that."
The Board of Supervisors agreed by a 3-2 vote in June to sell the land on the Tucson area's southeast side, near the Pima County Fairgrounds, to Project Blue but the deal hasn't closed yet. Project officials now are pushing to have the sale closed by Dec. 25.
Supervisor Rex Scott said getting Beale's commitments into an agreement "is a laudable and significant accomplishment," and that Pima County residents "should know that their representatives pushed hard for this independent verification of Beale’s commitments to renewable energy in our discussions with them."
Supervisor Rex Scott
"The $3.6 billion capital investment in this project is the largest of its kind in the history of our county and will have a positive, profound effect on our local economy," Scott said.Â
Previously, when the Project Blue developers sent a letter to the county committing to matching its energy use with renewables, Beale said it would do so through the energy supply agreement it was seeking with Tucson Electric Power. In the letter, Beale said it would "seek to accelerate the development of new renewable energy resources for TEP’s grid that produce enough energy to match 100% of the data center’s energy consumption — at the data center’s cost.â€
Project Blue plans to buy what was described as renewable energy credits during the Arizona Corporation Commission meeting earlier this month, when the ACC approved the energy service agreement between Beale Infrastructure and TEP. The renewable energy credits will be used to satisfy its pledge made with the county
Beale will also will make an "initial $5 million donation" to go towards science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) scholarships and funding for students and trade schools in Pima County. An additional $10 million donation will be made "during subsequent phases of the project to fund community benefit initiatives identified with the County to address local priorities," Lesher said in her memo.
Additionally, Beale Infrastructure will agree that the data center "will meet the County’s Preliminary Integrated Water Management Plan (PIWMP) requirements," Lesher wrote.
Beale data center in Marana moves ahead
The developers of Project Blue got another win last week, when the Marana Planning Commission unanimously voted to recommend a rezoning change that would allow another data center to be built there, so long as the Town Council approves it.
One of the two properties recommended to be rezoned is a located west of Interstate 10 along North Luckett Road south of the Pinal County line and Pinal Airpark Road. The land is owned by the Kai Family Trust. Herb Kai, listed on the property details in the Pima County Treasurer's Office, is one of Marana's six Town Council members.
°Õ³ó±ðÌý is a 310-acre parcel at 14990 W. Hardin Road, northwest of the intersection at North Luckett and West Hardin roads. It is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, according to the Treasurer's Office.
At full buildout, the data center campus will use an estimated 550 to 750 megawatts of power in its operations, according to materials from the Planning Commission's meeting. Developers are "currently engaged" with Trico Electric Cooperative for power.
Plans for the data center campus recommended for approval last week align with Marana's data center ordinance, which the Town Council enacted last year. The ordinance requires data-center developers to disclose how much water and energy they use and to bring in their own water supply rather than rely on the town’s supply.
The data centers also will have to adhere to limits on the amount of noise coming from their facilities. Before they get Marana Town Council approval, they’ll have to submit a noise study performed by a qualified outside acoustic engineer and project how noisy the centers will be once in operation.
Since Marana's ordinance does not allow for potable water to be used for the cooling operations of data centers, the current proposal for these data centers would be for them to be air-cooled facilities.
Marana Water will provide water for office operations only, while Cortaro Marana Irrigation District will provide water for industrial, irrigation and fire suggestion.
In the presentation to the Planning Commission, Beale Infrastructure said converting the data center campus would use 95% less water than the parcels currently use, as they consume about 2,000 acre-feet of water per year for existing agricultural uses, while the air-cooled data centers would use about 40 acre-feet per year.
