I’m very wary of projects that require huge amounts of water and energy when both of these are scarce in our desert environment. Doesn’t seem like a good idea for Tucson. Beware short term gain long term pain . Tucson should decline !
Data centers are not a good fit for Tucson. The air quality impacts could result in Tucson becoming nonattainment for ozone (we are nearly over the ozone standard now). The water use is stunning. I do not support this.
I figured it was Amazon with the name 'Project Blue'. His space craft is Blue Origin. What a dilemma for our beautiful Tucson. $'s and jobs are always needed. BUT there is a cost. Bezos used to have some integrity. No longer. Will the jobs be union? Can't trust Bezos to do right by employees. I hate to think Tucson will succumb to an oligarch. I suspect our water & electric rates will increase. So we the little people will pay for an oligarch to gain even more riches.
Okay, Jeff Bezos is already a player in Tucson so that isn't a concern. In fact, it's a relief to know this is not an international group with dubious deep pockets. Will this type of industry exist in 10 years? Will those huge data centers be abandoned boxes of ugly remains some day? Our scare water resources could probably be better used to promote something else that will have more long term benefits for Tucson and Pima County. TEP is excited to participate - they stand to make a lot of money but here again, should we be using all that energy on what could become an ephemeral boost to the economy? Doubtful. Let's find other new businesses to build our economy.
I received some correspondence from Ward 5 asserting that Project Blue’s data centers would power cloud services, but not AI; therefore, could (allegedly) use much less water and electricity. I don’t know how much I believe that (granted, I’m 100% ignorant about the difference in energy usage between the two). I’m happy to share the full summary, as it appears it was a prepared statement for constituents.
OMFG. I wrote a piece on my own substack about this. It’s insane and the big boys know it. They just don’t care. Cloud services. AI. it’s all part of the same ball of bubble gum. It’s playing god on a planet’s dwindling resources.
OMFG. I wrote a piece on my own substack about this. It’s insane and the big boys know it. They just don’t care. Cloud services. AI. it’s all part of the same ball of bubble gum. It’s playing god on a planet’s dwindling resources.
Knowing it's AWS makes it a bit less worse. It's at least an established company and may not be entirely focused on AI, which I believe is a bubble waiting to burst.
I'm not sure your math is correct. Can you provide more information? Is it 43 million gallons per year? week? day? If it is annual, does that mean Tucson will be using 73 billion gallons of water per year?
Got it, so essentially doubling the amount of water used in Tucson--that's significant for a bunch of computers sitting in a building and does not include the additional people who would have to move here for these jobs.
I am worried about the site's electricity and water use. I just hope that the City is able to make a deal that will be very beneficial to Tucson in the long run. That might mean charging a premium for the water to generate city revenue. It's too bad that we don't have a municipal power company because that would also mean we could also generate revenue from the massive power usage.
Construction jobs are great, but we have other things we need to be building, so they are less creating jobs and more allocating jobs away from other things.
What about building a data center in a naturally cooler climate, like Northern Arizona? Seems like they would need a lot less water in a cooler climate. Water is the major concern here -- the plant could easily be solar-powered, but water is something we cannot manufacture. Computer data centers require a cold environment. I'd like to know what it is about the low desert that is attracting Amazon to this location — it seems like a bad idea. More jobs. more people who need more water, all of whom live in the low desert. Water, water, water...
I’m very wary of projects that require huge amounts of water and energy when both of these are scarce in our desert environment. Doesn’t seem like a good idea for Tucson. Beware short term gain long term pain . Tucson should decline !
Data centers are not a good fit for Tucson. The air quality impacts could result in Tucson becoming nonattainment for ozone (we are nearly over the ozone standard now). The water use is stunning. I do not support this.
Still too much unknown for my acceptance of Project Blue...nothing said about the noise factor.
Not enough long term benefit to community for me to feel it is worth loosing water & increase in TEP bills.
Jan Dowling
I figured it was Amazon with the name 'Project Blue'. His space craft is Blue Origin. What a dilemma for our beautiful Tucson. $'s and jobs are always needed. BUT there is a cost. Bezos used to have some integrity. No longer. Will the jobs be union? Can't trust Bezos to do right by employees. I hate to think Tucson will succumb to an oligarch. I suspect our water & electric rates will increase. So we the little people will pay for an oligarch to gain even more riches.
I love the idea that each project name contains a hint, but it is probably unlikely.
I agree but I was right.
Okay, Jeff Bezos is already a player in Tucson so that isn't a concern. In fact, it's a relief to know this is not an international group with dubious deep pockets. Will this type of industry exist in 10 years? Will those huge data centers be abandoned boxes of ugly remains some day? Our scare water resources could probably be better used to promote something else that will have more long term benefits for Tucson and Pima County. TEP is excited to participate - they stand to make a lot of money but here again, should we be using all that energy on what could become an ephemeral boost to the economy? Doubtful. Let's find other new businesses to build our economy.
I received some correspondence from Ward 5 asserting that Project Blue’s data centers would power cloud services, but not AI; therefore, could (allegedly) use much less water and electricity. I don’t know how much I believe that (granted, I’m 100% ignorant about the difference in energy usage between the two). I’m happy to share the full summary, as it appears it was a prepared statement for constituents.
Yeah, I’d like to see that. Send it to Joe@TucsonAgenda.com.
Sent!
No BEZOS hyperscale data centers in Tucson!
Thank you for the link to the live stream!
OMFG. I wrote a piece on my own substack about this. It’s insane and the big boys know it. They just don’t care. Cloud services. AI. it’s all part of the same ball of bubble gum. It’s playing god on a planet’s dwindling resources.
https://lacorua.substack.com/p/as-a-digital-artist-i-reject-ai
Terrible idea for a desert community.
OMFG. I wrote a piece on my own substack about this. It’s insane and the big boys know it. They just don’t care. Cloud services. AI. it’s all part of the same ball of bubble gum. It’s playing god on a planet’s dwindling resources.
https://lacorua.substack.com/p/as-a-digital-artist-i-reject-ai
Knowing it's AWS makes it a bit less worse. It's at least an established company and may not be entirely focused on AI, which I believe is a bubble waiting to burst.
When I search, it seems that Tucson uses 30 billion gallons of water per year?
If so, isn't the 43 million gallons expected by this data center pretty insignificant?
I'm not sure your math is correct. Can you provide more information? Is it 43 million gallons per year? week? day? If it is annual, does that mean Tucson will be using 73 billion gallons of water per year?
The article mentions 43 million gallons of water annually
Got it, so essentially doubling the amount of water used in Tucson--that's significant for a bunch of computers sitting in a building and does not include the additional people who would have to move here for these jobs.
I'm not sure I understand.
Tucson uses 30 Billion gallons annually.
This is going to use 43 Millions annually.
How is it doubling the amount of water used in Tucson?
Sorry about that billions to millions! Any way we slice it -- it's a lot of water.
I am worried about the site's electricity and water use. I just hope that the City is able to make a deal that will be very beneficial to Tucson in the long run. That might mean charging a premium for the water to generate city revenue. It's too bad that we don't have a municipal power company because that would also mean we could also generate revenue from the massive power usage.
Construction jobs are great, but we have other things we need to be building, so they are less creating jobs and more allocating jobs away from other things.
What about building a data center in a naturally cooler climate, like Northern Arizona? Seems like they would need a lot less water in a cooler climate. Water is the major concern here -- the plant could easily be solar-powered, but water is something we cannot manufacture. Computer data centers require a cold environment. I'd like to know what it is about the low desert that is attracting Amazon to this location — it seems like a bad idea. More jobs. more people who need more water, all of whom live in the low desert. Water, water, water...