TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — The Project Blue data center should not be using City of Tucson water. That’s the stand from the city. But the city found out a Project Blue contractor was trucking city water to the site outside city limits. Now Tucson’s City manager is taking steps to be sure the city knows where contractors will be using city water.
The City of Tucson says when City Council rejected annexing the Project Blue site and said it would not supply water for cooling or anything else, that meant no city water for any purpose.
But a tipster told the city Project Blue’s contractor ordered a construction meter to supply water from this Tucson water hydrant off Old Vail Road. There’s no sign of construction here. The city says the hydrant was filling trucks that hauled water to the Project Blue site. There, workers sprayed it to keep down the dust.
City Manager Tim Thomure says when contractors arranged a water source, the city expected them to use water for work right by the meter. Now the city is adding safeguards to be sure that happens.
“We've actually added to our application materials now an indication of where the water will be used, because up until quite recently, it was always right there at the site where the construction meter is pulled. This was a pretty unique circumstance.”
Water professionals often measure water in acre-feet—one acre-foot is about the amount of water required to cover a football field a foot deep.
The city says based on what Project Blue used, Beale Infrastructure should pay for water rights equal to two acre-feet.
That’s more than 651,000 gallons. A typical truck to spray down a construction site carries about four thousand gallons so that’s more than 162 truckloads.
For privacy the city can not be specific about any customer’s bill but it says at commercial rates two acre feet would probably cost about $3400.
Lee Ziesche of the No Desert Data Center Coalition is happy to see the city keeping better track of the water.
“We've said from the beginning that we can't trust Beale, and they keep proving again and again that that's true. You know, the people of Tucson said no to them using our water, and they're doing it anyway.”
A Beale representative referred us to the city for questions but also said:
"The city issued a permit for temporary water per the normal course of business. Our contractor followed standard procedure and will be billed accordingly. We are procuring construction water from an alternative source for non-potable use."
And while Beale said it will pay the water bill it did not say anything about the city’s demand to reimburse for two acre-feet worth of water rights.
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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.
