Project Blue Protesters return to construction site Thursday morning

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Protesters returned to the Project Blue construction site Thursday morning. Banging on drums with megaphones and signs in hand, they lined Houghton St. on both sides, waving to passing cars.

The protest—like many other actions opposing the data center— was organized by the No Desert Data Center Coalition.

"We have already repeatedly said that we don’t want this—I mean no reasonable person who actually cares about the desert wants this at all,” said Sabine Harrington. She and her father Steve are lifelong Tucsonans. Though this was one of Sabine's first protests, she says he felt called to come out to protect her home and community.

“I mean this land is something that people who live here actually care about, and the companies behind this don’t care about us at all," she said. "They don’t care about our future; they don’t care about the desert; they don’t care about any living thing here.”

The Harringtons aren't alone. Many of the protesters in the group vowed through speeches to keep showing up and helping grow the movement against a data center in the Sonoran Desert.

"“t’s an organic movement, it’s just beginning," Steve Harrington said. "We will just keep up the pressure until this just goes by the wayside and is just another thing that doesn’t belong here.”

Beale Infrastructure, the company behind this construction told KGUN 9:

"The Houghton Road Data Center will have comparable water use to two or three sit down restaurants once operational, using roughly 15,000 to 20,000 gallons per day for domestic purposes only - such as employee kitchens, bathrooms, and health and safety. Water supply for construction and operations outside Tucson Water has been secured for the project. The beginning stages of well development has begun, and extensive modeling has been done to ensure the wells will not impact surrounding wells. The project will lead to positive, long-term economic impacts to Pima County, create thousands of local job opportunities, and result in significant investments for workforce development and critical funding for education in the community."