🏜️ From Toilet to Tucson's Tap to Corporate Pockets: The Project Blue Water Heist Exposed, Pima County Vote on Tuesday
💧 ¡Ya Basta! The Corporate Water Raid We Can Still Stop Before Tuesday's Vote. Project Blue threatens to drain our desert home while county officials count dollar signs.
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
👧🏾✊🏾👦🏾
Pima County officials are trying to pull a sneaky trick 🤔 with our water 💧. They're telling families we might need to start drinking treated sewage water 🚽 because we're running so low on fresh water, but at the same time they want to give millions of gallons of that same treated water to tech companies for computer warehouses 💻🏢. It's like saying your family is so broke you need to eat ramen 🍜 for dinner, then giving away half your grocery money to a neighbor who promises to maybe hire your cousin someday.
If that treated water is precious enough that we might have to drink it, why would we give it away to corporations instead of saving it for our community's future 🌱?
🗝️ Takeaways
🚰 Water Shell Game Exposed: Officials promote reclaimed water for drinking while giving it to corporations for cooling
💧 Future Water Supply Threatened: "Toilet-to-tap" plans reveal reclaimed water IS our drinking water future
🏜️ Massive Scale Water Theft: Up to 10 data centers could consume 50 million gallons daily from our emergency reserves
⏰ Time-Sensitive Action Required: Board of Supervisors vote scheduled for Tuesday—public pressure needed now
🔒 Corporate Secrecy Exposed: NDAs hide actual water usage while officials push approval without disclosure
⚡ Double Ratepayer Burden: Higher electricity bills AND less water for future municipal needs
💧 ¡Ya Basta! How We Can Still Stop Project Blue Before They Sell Our Sacred Desert Water to Corporate Raiders
By Three Sonorans
Reporting from Tohono O'odham and Pascua Yaqui ancestral lands
Let me start with the shell game that exposes the fundamental lie at the heart of Project Blue's water promises.
County officials and corporate cheerleaders keep repeating the same talking point like a broken corrido: "Don't worry, mi gente, these data centers will only use reclaimed water, not drinking water." They wave this around as if it were some kind of environmental blessing, as if treated wastewater grew on trees in the Sonoran Desert.
However, here's where their story falls apart faster than campaign promises after Election Day.
The very same political leaders pushing Project Blue are simultaneously telling Tucsonenses that we're so water-desperate that we need to start drinking reclaimed water ourselves. They call it "toilet-to-tap" when they're being honest, or "direct potable reuse" when they're trying to sound fancy for the newspapers.
¿Ven la contradicción?
Think about this logically. If our water situation is so dire that we need to start drinking treated sewage water to survive, then every single drop of that reclaimed water represents a vital part of our future drinking supply. When you give millions of gallons daily to cool computer servers, you're literally taking water out of the mouths of future generations.
It's like having one loaf of bread to feed your family for a week, then giving half of it to your neighbor because "it's not the bread you were planning to eat today." The bread is still gone, hermanos, and your family still goes hungry.
This isn't environmental stewardship—it's water laundering, with corporate-friendly language designed to conceal the fact that they're raiding our emergency reserves while labeling it "sustainable development."
This contradiction reveals everything you need to know about how power operates in our desert borderlands, where corporate vultures circle overhead. At the same time, our elected officials prioritize Wall Street profits over the agua sagrada that sustains our communities.
Right now, this very moment, these same officials are rushing to rubber-stamp the largest water grab in our region's history through a project they've dubbed "Project Blue"—but which should be called what it really is: a half-trillion-dollar corporate scheme to turn our drought into digital gold while leaving our families with empty wells and higher utility bills.
The beautiful truth our ancestors understood is that el pueblo unido jamás será vencido. When communities organize with fierce love for our tierra and clear understanding of what's at stake, we can stop even the most powerful corporate machines. We stopped them before, and we can stop them again—but only if we act now, before Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting where they plan to approve this water heist.
The Drought Reality They Want You to Forget
Understanding the urgency of this moment requires grasping the full scope of our water crisis. According to NBC News reporting, Mesa Vice Mayor Jenn Duff emphasized that "This has been the driest 12 months in 126 years," citing National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data.
"We are on red alert, and I think data centers are an irresponsible use of our water."
Arizona operates under Tier 1 water shortage conditions, resulting in a devastating 512,000 acre-foot reduction in Colorado River water allocations. That represents 18% of our water supply vanishing faster than politicians' environmental promises after elections.
Surface water supplies from Lake Mead, America's largest reservoir, and the Colorado River that feeds it have dwindled to their lowest levels in recorded history, according to the Bureau of Reclamation.
Our campesino families have been forced to abandon thousands of acres of productive farmland. Tribal communities watch their ancestral water sources disappear while state officials prioritize corporate interests over treaty obligations that stretch back generations.
The drought isn't some abstract policy challenge—it's a daily reality that forces families to choose between watering their gardens and paying their utility bills.
¿Y qué hacen nuestros líderes en respuesta?
Instead of protecting every precious drop we have left, they're preparing to hand over our most vital resource to a company that has existed for only nine months, operating under such secrecy that even elected officials don't know how much water they'll actually consume.
Unmasking the Corporate Players Behind the Secrecy
Project Blue stopped being mysterious the moment we followed the money and corporate connections. The project involves Beale Infrastructure, a company so new it barely has a website, backed by Blue Owl, a major Wall Street investment firm specializing in data center speculation.
Their legal muscle comes from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, which an Arizona Daily Star investigation reveals operates as "the second largest lobbying firm in the US by revenue."
When corporate giants deploy their most expensive lawyers to negotiate with local governments, you can bet they're not planning small-scale operations. Their target spans 290 acres near the Pima County Fairgrounds, with potential for up to 10 massive data centers. Each facility carries the capacity to consume what The Washington Post reports as "anywhere between 1 million and 5 million gallons of water a day — as much as a town of 10,000 to 50,000 people."
Imagínense esto, carnales: Ten data centers consuming enough water for half a million people daily, while creating only 180 permanent jobs. That represents more water than the entire population of Tucson uses, while employing fewer people than work at a single big-box retailer.
The mathematical absurdity should prompt every taxpayer to question whose interests are truly being served.
Standing against this corporate steamroller, we find a few elected officials showing actual backbone. According to Arizona Daily Star reporting, "Republican Steve Christy and Democrat Matt Heinz, and Democratic Supervisor Jennifer Allen said they won't vote to approve measures needed to advance the project until they receive full details about key items including the project developer, and at least some information about its water and energy use."
¡Por fin! Here we have elected officials from different parties united around a simple principle: public resources deserve public scrutiny, regardless of corporate preferences for secrecy.
The Democracy-for-Sale Problem
The most infuriating aspect of this entire process is the systematic exclusion of community voices from decisions that affect our shared future. Pima County officials, citing a non-disclosure agreement they made with Project Blue developers, "have declined to release specifics on the project's water or energy use."
¿En serio, de verdad? We're expected to approve transferring public land and water rights to a corporation that refuses to disclose basic consumption projections?
This represents democracy for sale, where corporate comfort takes priority over community transparency. Public officials who should serve as our advocates instead function as corporate salespeople, pushing deals they can't fully explain due to legal agreements that prioritize shareholder interests over community needs.
County Administrator Jan Lesher has emerged as Project Blue's primary champion within the government, producing memo after memo after memo after memo after memo that recommend approval despite lacking comprehensive environmental impact data.
Her communications read like corporate marketing materials, filled with vague promises about "economic development" and "water stewardship" while carefully avoiding specific numbers about consumption and long-term community costs.
The corporate strategy here follows a predictable pattern: create artificial urgency, limit public information, and push through approval before communities can organize effective resistance.
They're rushing this Tuesday's vote precisely because they understand that informed communities would never approve such a lopsided deal.
The Hidden Water Mathematics
Breaking down the numbers they desperately want to hide reveals the true scope of this resource grab. University of Tulsa research demonstrates that "a single data center can consume up to 5 million gallons of drinking water per day, enough to supply thousands of households or farms."
Project Blue's potential for housing 10 such facilities means we're looking at up to 50 million gallons consumed daily.
To put that in perspective that hits home: that's enough water to supply 150,000 people, which exceeds the entire population of Tucson's eastside neighborhoods. We're talking about industrial-scale consumption that would make Project Blue one of the largest water users in southern Arizona, competing directly with entire cities for access to our most precious resource.
The promise of reclaimed water becomes even more hollow when examined within the regional context. TechRepublic reporting reveals that "According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), a single 100-megawatt data center can use up to 2 million liters of water per day, roughly equal to the daily water use of 6,500 households." Multiply that by the potential ten facilities, and you're looking at water consumption equivalent to a medium-sized city.
Every gallon of treated wastewater diverted to data centers represents water that can't serve municipal needs, agricultural irrigation, environmental restoration, or the Santa Cruz River revitalization that our communities fought decades to achieve.
The shell game works by labeling it "reclaimed" water while ignoring the fact that this same resource serves as our backup plan for municipal drinking supplies.
Y cuando las corporaciones dicen que van a usar "solo agua reciclada," they're banking on public ignorance about how integrated water systems actually function in desert environments facing the climate crisis.
The Utility Bill Trap: Paying for Their Profits
Project Blue's energy demands create another layer of economic exploitation that directly affects every family paying utility bills. According to county fact sheets, Project Blue "will become one of the utility's largest customers," yet officials have provided no explanation for how "the project would protect existing TEP ratepayers."
Traducción clara: We'll fund the infrastructure upgrades through higher electricity bills while corporations enjoy guaranteed low rates negotiated in secret. This follows the standard playbook used across the Southwest—socialize the costs through public ratepayers while privatizing the benefits through corporate contracts.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory data shows how rapidly this burden grows: "data centers accounted for 4.4% of U.S. electricity use in 2023, up from 1.9% in 2018."
That explosive demand growth gets passed directly to residential and small business customers through rate increases justified by "meeting growing demand."
The regional pattern already demonstrates this extraction in action. In Mesa, Google negotiated special water rates "to pay $6.08 per 1,000 gallons of water, while residents paid $10.80 per 1,000 gallons." Working families subsidize corporate infrastructure while paying premium rates for their own basic needs.
TEP customers should expect similar treatment: we'll pay for grid upgrades, transmission lines, and increased generation capacity, while corporations lock in preferential rates that guarantee their profitability at our expense.
Growing Resistance Across the Desert Southwest
The inspiring news cutting through corporate propaganda involves communities across our region waking up and organizing effective resistance.
In Mesa, Vice Mayor Jenn Duff demonstrated what principled leadership looks like by casting the lone dissenting vote against another water-intensive data center, declaring that "data centers are an irresponsible use of our water."
Her courage sparked broader questioning of the true costs and benefits of these deals. The town of Marana took decisive action by adopting an ordinance in December "that prohibits the water department from supplying data centers with potable water." Now, corporations must secure alternative water sources and file detailed consumption applications before receiving municipal approval.
¡Eso sí se puede, raza!
When communities organize around clear demands and unified action, even the most powerful corporate lobbying operations can be stopped. These victories demonstrate that we don't have to accept every corporate scheme marketed as "economic development."
The pattern emerging across Arizona shows elected officials and communities learning to ask harder questions about these deals. Instead of automatically accepting corporate promises, they're demanding environmental impact studies, community benefit agreements, and binding commitments that protect local interests.
We Can Stop This—But Only Through Immediate Action
The encouraging reality often missing from corporate media coverage is that this deal remains stoppable. Three Pima County supervisors have already stated they won't approve Project Blue without full environmental disclosure
Here's your action plan for stopping Project Blue before Tuesday's vote:
Contact Every Supervisor Immediately: Send emails to all five supervisors using these addresses: District1@pima.gov, District2@pima.gov, District3@pima.gov, District4@pima.gov, District5@pima.gov, COB_mail@pima.gov
Make Three Clear Demands: First, require complete disclosure of water consumption projections for all ten potential data centers. Second, establish binding caps on water usage, accompanied by significant financial penalties for overuse. Third, negotiate community benefit agreements including local hire requirements, living wages, and environmental protections.
Attend Tuesday's Meeting: The Board of Supervisors convenes on Tuesday at 9 AM for public comment. Your constitutional right to address elected officials becomes meaningless unless you exercise it. Show up, speak up, and bring friends.
Expand the Conversation: Share this investigation with family, neighbors, coworkers, and social media networks. Corporate power depends on public ignorance and political isolation. Breaking through information barriers represents our most powerful organizing tool.
Reclaiming Our Desert's Future
Our ancestors didn't survive and thrive in this desert for millennia by surrendering their most precious resources to strangers promising distant wealth. They flourished by understanding the sacred relationships connecting land, water, and community—by making decisions that honored the interests of seven generations of descendants rather than seven quarters of corporate profit-taking.
We can choose to tap into that ancestral wisdom again.
Instead of chasing every glittering tech project dangled before desperate communities, we can invest in renewable energy development that creates permanent jobs without draining aquifers.
We can fund water conservation and recycling programs that benefit existing residents rather than subsidizing corporate consumption.
We can build economic systems rooted in our desert's natural rhythms, rather than Wall Street's artificial quarterly demands.
Indigenous water protector Andrew Curley (Diné/Navajo) reminds us that lasting change requires "teaching people that, I think we're going to keep having the same problem generations forward" until we fundamentally transform our relationships with the natural world that sustains all life.
El agua es vida. La tierra es sagrada. Y la lucha sigue.
Project Blue isn't inevitable—it's a choice being made by people we elected to represent our interests. We retain the power to demand they choose differently, but only if we act with the urgency this moment demands.
¡Sí se puede, y vamos a ganar!
Stay Connected to the Resistance
Three Sonorans provides the fearless, independent journalism our communities need to hold power accountable. While corporate media repeats press releases and accepts official narratives, we follow the money, expose backroom deals, and amplify the voices of communities fighting for environmental justice.
Subscribe to Three Sonorans to support investigative reporting that consistently prioritizes people over profits and community needs over corporate greed.
What Do You Think?
The clock runs down toward Tuesday's crucial vote, and your voice carries weight in this fight. Help us continue tracking this evolving story by sharing your thoughts and experiences:
What questions do you have about how Project Blue's water consumption will affect your family's utility bills and long-term water security in our drought-stressed region?
How do you think we can build lasting community power strong enough to stop future corporate water grabs before they reach the approval stage?
¡La lucha sigue, y la esperanza también crece cuando luchamos juntos!
Have a scoop or a story you want us to follow up on? Send us a message!
Another example of short-sighted policy; another win for corporations over people (even though the Extreme Court claims corporations ARE people).
This is insane! Well written!