💰 Cash Over H2O: SALC's General Maxwell's Secret Data Deal Puts Profits Before Precious Water | BUCKMASTER
Tucson's mysterious Project Blue hides environmental costs behind corporate NDAs and economic blackmail
Based on the Buckmaster Show for 7/9/25, a daily radio show in Tucson, AZ, interviewing local newsmakers. Analysis and opinions are my own.
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
👧🏾✊🏾👦🏾
A retired Air Force general 🎖️ went on a Tucson radio show 📻 to promote a secret 🤫 $3.6 billion 💰 data center project called Project Blue 🔵 that would use tons of water 💧 during a major drought 🌵. The company won't reveal important details about water usage because of legal agreements that keep information private 🔒.
The general says it will create jobs and money for Tucson 🏗️, but critics worry about using precious water for corporate profits 📈 when Arizona is facing its worst drought in over 1,000 years 🏜️. The general also talked about transportation funding 🚗 that most people don't even know about 🤔. Environmental justice advocates see this as another example of corporations taking resources from local communities 🏘️ while promising benefits that may never materialize.
🗝️ Takeaways
💧 Project Blue represents $3.6 billion corporate water grab disguised as economic development
🤐 Non-disclosure agreements prevent public scrutiny of environmental impacts during historic drought
⚡ Data centers require massive water and power consumption while promising vague future benefits
🎭 General Maxwell uses military credentials to legitimize corporate talking points and secrecy
🌵 Indigenous water rights and desert ecology ignored in favor of tech company profits
💸 Economic blackmail tactics pit communities against each other for corporate subsidies
🚫 RTA Next transportation funding faces public ignorance and car-centric infrastructure priorities
💧 Desert Water Wars: When Data Centers Drain Democracy and Dollars Trump Desert Life
How Tucson's Project Blue Threatens Indigenous Water Rights While Corporate Cronies Count Cash
Here we go again, hermanos y hermanas. Another day, another corporate conquest cloaked in economic salvation rhetoric. On July 9th's Buckmaster Show on KVOI, we witnessed a masterclass in how military-industrial complex veterans pivot to peddling corporate propaganda to parched desert communities.
General Ted Maxwell—because apparently retiring from dropping bombs means you get to drop bombshells about "beneficial" business deals—spent an entire hour hawking Project Blue like a carnival barker selling snake oil to suckers.
But let's be crystal clear from the jump: this isn't just another business deal. This is about agua, tierra, and vida—water, land, and life—in a region where our ancestors have stewarded these sacred resources for millennia before European colonizers and their corporate descendants decided everything was for sale.
The Mysterious Project Blue: Secrecy Serves Corporate Interests
Because nothing says "trust us" like refusing to tell people what you're actually planning to do with their resources.
Project Blue represents exactly the kind of extractive capitalism that has devastated Indigenous communities and working-class neighborhoods across the Southwest for generations. Here's what we know through the fog of non-disclosure agreements and corporate speak:
A $3.6 billion data center complex proposed for construction in Tucson
Managed by Beale Corporation (the only name they'll release publicly)
Requires massive water and power consumption during unprecedented drought conditions
Details are hidden behind NDAs that prevent public scrutiny of environmental impacts
General Maxwell spent considerable airtime defending this secrecy, claiming "the reason you have an NDA generally is to protect the information... they don't want their name out there because if let's say it falls apart and the city of Tucson says, no, we're still closed for business."
Right, because God forbid a corporation actually has to justify its environmental impact to the people whose resources it wants to exploit. How terribly inconvenient for the capitalist class.
The general also revealed that this mystery corporation plans to build "an 18-mile purple pipeline" for reclaimed water, insisting they'll achieve "net zero on the water loss." But here's the kicker—they admit they'll "start with potable water for a bit of time" before transitioning to reclaimed water. We know this will be at least two years of using our drinking water.
Translation: "Trust us, we'll totally switch to recycled water eventually, but first we need to drain your drinking water reserves during a historic drought. What could go wrong?"
The Water Crisis Context: Indigenous Wisdom vs. Corporate Greed
To understand why Project Blue represents such a profound threat, we need to examine Tucson's water reality through an Indigenous lens. The Tohono O'odham Nation has inhabited this desert for thousands of years, developing sophisticated water management systems that sustained communities without depleting aquifers or disrupting natural cycles.
Current drought conditions make this corporate water grab particularly unconscionable:
Arizona faces its worst drought in 1,200 years
Colorado River levels have dropped to historic lows
Tucson relies heavily on Central Arizona Project water, which faces significant cuts
Groundwater levels continue declining across the region
Yet Maxwell dismisses water concerns with corporate-friendly talking points about technological solutions. He claims "the investments that this company is making in order to make this happen with their newer technology, which is not what the older data centers were using that had a lot of the concerns and problems from past communities."
Oh, wonderful! Another corporation promising their new technology will magically solve environmental problems their industry created. Where have we heard that before? Oil companies promising cleaner drilling? Mining companies pledging responsible extraction? Chemical companies swearing their new formulations are totally safe?
Economic Development or Economic Colonialism?
Maxwell repeatedly frames Project Blue as economic salvation, touting "3,000 construction jobs" and "$250 million over 10 years" in direct revenue. But let's examine who actually benefits from these corporate welfare packages:
The Promised Benefits:
3,000 temporary construction jobs
180 permanent operational positions
$3.6 billion corporate investment
Property tax revenue for city coffers
The Hidden Costs:
Massive water consumption during drought
Increased electricity demands straining the grid
Environmental degradation in vulnerable desert ecosystems
Loss of democratic transparency through secret negotiations
The general's most revealing moment came when defending the project's job creation claims: "That's what they put down in paper for the requirements to meet the needs of this agreement. If you look at the where they want to go and how they want to do, it's going to be a lot more jobs and there's probably going to be a lot higher level pay."
"Probably going to be" more jobs? "There's probably going to be" higher pay? These are the concrete guarantees we're supposed to accept in exchange for our precious water resources? This is exactly the kind of vague corporate promises that have left working-class communities holding empty bags while executives count cash.
RTA Next: Transportation Tokenism
Maxwell also discussed the Regional Transportation Authority's upcoming funding vote, revealing that "only 13% of the people polled in Pima County actually know about RTA next."
This stunning ignorance isn't accidental—it reflects decades of political leaders failing to engage communities in meaningful dialogue about transportation priorities.
The RTA's approach epitomizes liberal incrementalism at its most ineffective. Rather than confronting the fundamental inequities that force working families to rely on personal vehicles, it proposes cosmetic changes while maintaining car-centric infrastructure that enriches developers and the automobile industry.
The Indigenous Perspective: Water as Sacred, Not Commodity
From an Indigenous Chicano perspective, Project Blue represents another chapter in the ongoing colonization of our homelands. For centuries, corporate interests have extracted wealth from the Southwest while leaving environmental devastation and economic dependency in their wake.
Water isn't just another input for corporate profit margins—it's the lifeblood of desert communities. Our ancestors understood water as sacred, developing complex systems for sharing and conserving this precious resource. Today's corporate water grabbers view it as just another commodity to be consumed for profit.
The Tohono O'odham Nation and other tribal communities have repeatedly warned about unsustainable water usage, yet their voices remain marginalized in development discussions dominated by corporate lobbyists and their political allies.
Resistance Strategies: How Corporate Power Operates
Maxwell's performance illustrates classic corporate influence tactics:
Secrecy: Hide environmental impacts behind NDAs
Economic blackmail: "Accept our deal or lose economic opportunities"
False choices: Present corporate extraction as the only path to prosperity
Authority laundering: Use military credentials to legitimize corporate talking points
Future promises: Guarantee immediate profits while promising eventual environmental benefits
The general's repeated emphasis on competing with Phoenix reveals the race-to-the-bottom dynamics of corporate site selection. Companies pit communities against each other, forcing them to offer increasingly generous subsidies while reducing environmental protections.
This is how capitalism operates, folks. They create artificial scarcity and competition, then present their exploitation as the only rational choice. Classic shock doctrine tactics applied to local politics.
What You Can Do: Grassroots Resistance and Community Power
The fight against Project Blue and similar corporate extractions requires sustained community organizing rooted in Indigenous wisdom and environmental justice principles. Here's how you can engage:
Immediate Actions:
Attend Tucson City Council meetings to demand transparency
Contact council members opposing secretive development deals
Join local environmental justice organizations
Support Indigenous water rights advocacy groups
Long-term Organizing:
Build coalitions between environmental, labor, and Indigenous rights groups
Develop alternative economic models prioritizing community needs over corporate profits
Advocate for true public participation in development decisions
Support Indigenous-led conservation initiatives
The path forward requires rejecting false choices between economic development and environmental protection. Real prosperity comes from sustainable development that honors both human needs and natural limits—not from corporate extraction that enriches distant shareholders while depleting local resources.
Remember, compañeros: every successful resistance movement started with people saying "¡Ya basta!"—enough is enough. Today's corporate water grab is tomorrow's community empowerment opportunity.
A Note of Hope and Solidarity
Despite corporate propaganda and political cowardice, communities across the Southwest are rising up to defend water rights and democratic decision-making. From Standing Rock to the San Pedro River, Indigenous-led movements are showing us how to resist extractive capitalism while building regenerative alternatives.
The fight against Project Blue connects us to larger struggles for environmental justice, Indigenous sovereignty, and economic democracy. When we defend desert water, we defend the possibility of a future where community needs matter more than corporate profits.
Support Three Sonorans Substack to keep receiving independent analysis that centers Indigenous perspectives and challenges corporate narratives. Your subscription helps fund the kind of journalism that corporate media won't provide—because they're too busy cashing checks from the same companies we're fighting.
¿Qué Piensas? What Do You Think?
Join the conversation and help build resistance to corporate colonization:
What strategies have you seen work in your community to challenge secretive development deals, and how can we apply those lessons to fighting Project Blue?
How can environmental justice movements better center Indigenous knowledge and leadership in defending water rights against corporate extraction?
¡La lucha sigue! The struggle continues, and together we can ensure that water remains a right, not a commodity for corporate profit.
Support independent journalism by subscribing to Three Sonorans Substack. Together, we can keep the resistance informed and the corporate colonizers accountable.
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Perhaps your citizens should read what happened to people near a data center in Georgia: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy8gy7lv448o -- horrible!