Water causes Arizona opposition to new data centers

Residents of Arizona, in the US, have strong opposition to new hyperscale data centers, which are very large buildings that hold computers. A coalition from the 2 parties has opposition to projects from Phoenix to Tucson. The projects must have more water, power and land. The state will not have access to almost 30 percent of the water that it gets from the Colorado River. The reporter tells that construction of one project goes on.

What is new

Arizona wanted the chip maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. Its Arizona site uses almost 5 million gallons of water each day from the city supply of Phoenix. The state also has 172 data centers that had small opposition. The new large projects must have more of all.

The numbers

Developers tell of jobs and tax income. Information on Project Blue, near Tucson, tells of 200 jobs that stay and $152 million in tax income in a decade. A Google data center in Oregon uses about 1.5 million gallons each day, one third of the chip plant.

What is not known

The county agreed with the developer in a nondisclosure agreement, and the plan came out slowly. The source gives no water figure for Project Blue. Only a small group came to a protest in August. Developers tell that data centers use less water than residents think.

Insight: Low water use does not end the opposition

A chip plant uses 3 times the water of the Oregon data center, and Arizona wanted it. Project Blue came with a nondisclosure agreement and information on jobs. The opposition reads as being about trust and a river with less water, more than about gallons. A low water number does not end it. Show open water data from the start.