Page up to date as of 8/7/25

UPDATE: On August 6th 2025, Project Blue was unanimously rejected with a NO vote from the Tucson City Council! Additionally, the City of Tucson and Pima County are moving forward to create policies and ordinances for stronger protections around data center projects. Read more here.

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The Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection is one of many calling for increased transparency and a NO vote on the proposed Project Blue data center development.

The facts of Project Blue thus far include:

• There are three planned or potential sites for new data centers.
• The end client of the data center is Amazon Web Services (AWS) according to AZ Luminaria.
• The Bobcat site will be a cloud computing, and not AI, facility (although there are overlaps).
• Beale Infrastructure plans to use potable water for the first two years of the project, and reclaimed water for the remaining years the site is in operation. Both types of water will be served by Tucson Water.
• The amount of reclaimed water the project will use is currently estimated at 1,910 acre-feet per year (for two of the three sites — see “Water Supply” at the link). This, critically, does NOT include the excess water that would be required to produce the electricity needed for Project Blue — which is at least twice that much water.
• Plans to replenish water used are not finalized or public, and the project will be charged a fee by TEP if they don’t meet their replenishment goals (including its goal to switch from potable to reclaimed water).
• Electricity for the project will be sourced from Tucson Electric Power.
• The expected source of this electricity (solar, natural gas, nuclear, etc.) is not public.
• The amount of power the project will use across its first two sites is estimated at up to 1.3GW (see “Energy Supply and Renewable Energy” at the link).
• Ward 3 Council Member Kevin Dahl has publicly stated that he will VOTE NO on Project Blue. The positions of other council members are varied. Note that CSDP has not received a response from Ward 5 Council Member Perez.

Prior to the June 17 Board of Supervisors meeting, we submitted a letter calling for increased due diligence on the project.

On June 17, the Pima County Board of Supervisors approved the sale of 290 acres of land to Beale Infrastructure Group for the first data center site (called the “Bobcat” site) with a 3-2 vote. At the same meeting, they approved a Specific Plan and Comprehensive Plan Amendment for the property.

On July 1, the Pima County Board of Supervisors voted to consider future county policies regarding NDAs and Environmental Impact Reviews for economic development projects — a result of their own concerns regarding Project Blue and this process.

A community information meeting in the City of Tucson’s Ward 4 on Wednesday, July 23rd, was attended by an estimated 1,100 people, including our staff. You can watch that meeting here. Two further meetings on July 31 (virtual) and August 4 we also heavily attended.

Next steps

The next step in the process is for Beale Infrastructure to engage in a development agreement with the City of Tucson and for the city to annex the Bobcat site property into the city limits.

• A draft development agreement is available on the City of Tucson’s page dedicated to the project.
• City of Tucson’s mayor and council will discuss the project at a Study Session on August 6 (originally August 5) and vote on the Development Agreement and annexation proposal at their regular meeting on August 19. The study session does not include a public hearing.
• If the vote passes, the annexation process will extend through November 2025.

In advance of the City’s vote, we are actively discussing our concerns with Tucson’s mayor and council members. These include:

• Water positivity. The project recently agreed to a ‘drop for drop’ replenishment commitment; however, the mechanism or mechanisms for this replenishment have reportedly not yet been determined. We understand that a study will be undertaken by the developer alongside Tucson Water – we urge the public, including the numerous water experts in the region, to be consulted as part of this project. We also note that similar claims by other data centers have not yet been successful, and that many projects “replenish” water by simply funding non-profits working on water issues elsewhere. We have many additional concerns with this element of the development agreement.
• Reclaimed water use. The project’s total water use is relevant whether the water is reclaimed or potable. The region is faced with an opportunity cost when both reclaimed or potable water is used — we can no longer use that water on other projects.
• Total water use. The project does not include estimates for water used to generate electricity, a multiple of the water that the project will use directly.
• Energy source. The project team shared with CSDP that they will be a TEP customer, “the same as the rest of you.” While they may use the same TEP energy sources as the rest of us, they have significantly more influence and ability to invest in TEP’s clean energy roadmap. Tucson City Council must fully review the agreement between Beale Infrastructure and TEP and demand that the agreement includes an contractually enforceable investment in and commitment to clean energy deliverables.
• Air quality. Tucson City Council must require details on the project’s ongoing expected use of backup generators, which have detrimental impacts on air quality. And the extraordinary amount of energy required by the project would impact on air quality.
• Projections. The project and Pima County have published 10-year economic projections related to the project; Tucson City Council must also require Beale Infrastructure to release 10-year resource use projections for energy and water use, including in response to any upgrades to the Bobcat and other sites.
• Enforceability. Paying small fines or charges in lieu of following through on promises should not be an option. Promises, including any community benefit agreements, must be contractually enforceable, and we must be appropriately compensated for breaches (which will happen).

This development is simply too resource-intensive, and lacks accountability — tell your elected officials to VOTE NO.