TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Work slowed down at the construction site for the Project Blue data center after Pima County’s Department of Environmental Quality hit the construction company with a notice of violation for letting dust spread off the site. Now KGUN9 has more on how the company has responded to that dust complaint.
In a letter to Pima County’s Department of Environmental Quality, Ames Construction said it suspended most earth moving operations after the City of Tucson stopped the company from using Tucson Water to wet down the work area.
When the city refused to annex the Project Blue site it also refused to allow the data center to use City of Tucson water for anything. When the city found the Project Blue contractor was paying for a Tucson Water account to load water trucks from a fire hydrant inside Tucson city limits it cut off that water.
Ames says on May 8th and May 11th it was working without dust control water while trying to live up to the Native Plant Preservation ordinance by harvesting some native plants. It says it used some smaller heavy equipment to do it. That kicked up some dust as seen in a photo from Pima DEQ’s notice of violation.
Now Beale Infrastructure, the company behind Project Blue, says the contractor has water for dust control that does not come from Tucson’s water system.
It showed Pima DEQ a picture of seven water trucks that it says it will use to wet down the dust and it brought in tank loads of a product with the memorable brand name of Gorilla-Snot. Gorilla-Snot basically glues down the dust.
Ames Construction told Pima DEQ it sent workers to courses on dust control and set speed limits for vehicles moving on the site.
Pima DEQ says it has not imposed any fines as of now.
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Craig Smith is a reporter for KGUN 9. With more than 40 years of reporting in cities like Tampa, Houston and Austin, Craig has covered more than 40 Space Shuttle launches and covered historic hurricanes like Katrina, Ivan, Andrew and Hugo. Share your story ideas and important issues with Craig by emailing craig.smith@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook and Twitter.
