The Pima County Department of Environmental Quality has issued a Notice of Violation to California-based developer Beale Infrastructure, which is working on the new data center on South Houghton Road, just north of the Pima County Fairgrounds, for "excess dust that crossed property boundary lines and no use of dust control measures."
This comes at a time when the contractor was disconnected from a City of Tucson water source it had used to fill spray trucks that brought dust control water to the site.
The official notice from PIma DEQ says, "AMES Construction had failed to employ dust mitigation practices (i.e. water), which resulted in visible fugitive dust emissions being generated. The fugitive dust was observed crossing property boundary lines."
According to the Pima County Department of Environmental Quality, the contractor has five days to correct the violation instead of the usual 30 days. We have reached out to Pima County to clarify why the contractor only has five days instead of the standard 30 days and will provide more information here once we hear back. The company has until May 17 to respond to the notice.
If the contractor does not comply within the five-day period, PDEQ may impose a "civil penalty....for each violation for the entire non-compliance period." State law allows for fines up to $10,000 per day, per violation of the permit.
In response to the notice, Beale Infrastructure issued the following statement:
"Beale Infrastructure’s contractors have fully cooperated with the numerous Pima County DEQ inspections at our Houghton Road site and are ensuring that dust control measures comply with all applicable requirements. Current site work has been temporarily paused while the contractor formalizes a non-potable water source. We will respond to Pima County DEQ in accordance with their letter."
The Fugitive Dust Activity Permit Program ensures that those involved in activities likely to generate dust are aware of fugitive dust regulations and requires them to provide information regarding the location and types of dust-generating activities.
This is the second time dust control has been an issue at the Project Blue construction site.
Last week the City of Tucson discovered Ames Construction had been getting water to use for dust control from a water source on the Tucson Water system.
The water came from a construction water meter attached to a fire hydrant inside Tucson city limits.
The Tucson City Council voted to reject annexing the project site into the city, and refused to supply Tucson Water for data center cooling or any other purpose. When the city found out Tucson water was going to Project Blue, even for dust control during construction, the city disconnected the water source and demanded reimbursement of two acre feet of water it said the contractors used.
A statement from Beale Infrastructure said the contractors has used normally procedures to arrange for the water and would pay the water bill–it did not respond to the city’s demand to reimburse the acre-feet of water in addition to the water bill.
