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Earlier this year, a developer tried to land a contract with the City of Tucson to build a data center under the name “Project Blue.” The proposal was for a 290-acre complex, almost the size of downtown Tucson. Large public opposition to the large land and water demands for the data center convinced the Tucson City Council to vote against the contract.

Yet, Project Blue is still moving ahead, looking for other building locations or alternate ways to secure the water and energy resources needed for the center. However, Project Blue not only threatens Arizona’s valuable resources, but also Arizonans’ health.

I currently work as a research fellow with Professor Elsie Sunderland at Harvard University. Our lab conducts research on environmental contaminants, including per- and polyfluoroalkyls (PFAS, for short), which are used extensively for data center semiconductors. Learning about the widespread nature of PFAS and its contribution to devastating health consequences has made me concerned for others from Tucson, my hometown.

Data centers have huge water demands for cooling the hardware that stores and processes data. After being used for cooling, the discharge water may be contaminated with PFAS.

PFAS are also sometimes called “forever chemicals” because of their long lifetimes in the environment. Their longevity is especially problematic when we ingest them through drinking water. PFAS exposure has been connected with cancer, liver damage, and compromised immune systems. Linda Birnbaum, former director of the National Toxicology Program, said that she was unaware of a “tissue or an organ system where (PFAS) effects haven’t been reported.” Some studies have shown that children are particularly vulnerable to PFAS. Currently, there is no widespread alternative to PFAS for semiconductors.

Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Biden Administration passed a rule to regulate six harmful PFAS compounds under the Safe Drinking Water Act. However, this past May, the Trump Administration EPA proposed eliminating rules on four of the regulated compounds and postponed the deadline for water utilities to comply with the limits for the other two compounds. Currently, about 100 million people in the U.S. have drinking water with levels of PFAS above the standards set last year.

In 2023, researchers in my lab developed an Interactive PFAS Map, which reports that about 30% of all water systems in Pima County have high levels of at least 1 PFAS compound. Additional contamination from Project Blue would only increase our exposure to PFAS.

Many communities around the country have begun to connect locally widespread health issues with PFAS waste from nearby chemical manufacturers. For example, PFAS contamination has been detected in fish in the Delaware River and has led to a variety of negative health effects for New Jersey residents. Residents in South Tucson have already been dealing with issues related to PFAS in their drinking water, likely related to firefighting foam used at the Air National Guard base nearby.

Tucson’s valuable natural resources have been particularly threatened this year. At the beginning of the summer, an early version of the Big Beautiful Bill originally put up many public lands for sale, including beloved Tucson hiking areas like Mt. Lemmon and Sabino Canyon. Now, we are facing another land and water threat from Project Blue. However, this time, public health is threatened too. I call on the Pima County Board of Supervisors to oppose this project. We must prevent hasty construction and wait until the data center can guarantee that it will not exploit our resources or threaten our health.

Inevitably, more data centers will be constructed to meet the growing data demands associated with AI. However, cities, utilities, and developers should think critically about ways to make construction more sustainable and limit the negative effects on public health. This means choosing the right locations that limit cooling needs, choosing the right cooling method, and making plans to mitigate water pollution, including finding alternatives to PFAS. Future data centers should rely on responsible construction and transparent relationships with city governments and local communities.