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Arizona data-center plans face water backlash after TSMC fabs were welcomed
The Verge reported that newer hyperscale data-center projects in drought-stricken Arizona are drawing bipartisan local opposition even as TSMC's chip plants still face little pushback.
- New headline Was: “Data centers want to suck everything dry — even the desert”
- Our desk filed its story
Newer hyperscale data-center proposals in Arizona are meeting bipartisan local resistance over water, power and land, even as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s chip plants in Phoenix still draw little opposition, The Verge reported1.
The Oct. 29 feature by Gaby Del Valle said the state is in a historic drought and is set to lose nearly 30 percent of its Colorado River allotment1. It said Arizona already hosts more than 170 data centers, including TSMC's foundry complex, which local leaders once courted as an economic revival1.
TSMC announced a Phoenix fab in 2020 with a projected $12 billion investment by 2029; The Verge said that figure has risen to $265 billion, which the company describes as the largest foreign direct investment in U.S. history1. The report said TSMC has more than 3,500 Arizona jobs, a second fab recently completed, a third under construction, and more plants planned1.
One contested site is Project Blue, a Beale Infrastructure proposal on 290 acres of unincorporated Pima County land near Tucson1. The Verge said Beale first promised an 18-mile reclaimed-water pipeline and later dropped it after city leaders did not approve the project; the county then approved wells that could draw up to 31 million gallons of groundwater a year1.
Beale also dropped water cooling for closed-loop air cooling, The Verge said, a change that reportedly led Amazon Web Services to leave a deal1. Beale declined to say whether Project Blue has a client1. A company representative told The Verge the well water would be for construction and that operating use would be limited to restrooms, kitchens and safety1.
A group called the No Desert Data Center Coalition has protested with the slogan "NOT ONE DROP FOR DATA," The Verge reported1. Members argued air cooling can raise electricity demand and thus indirect water use at power plants, a claim Beale denied1.
The Verge said TSMC's first Arizona fab uses about 4.75 million gallons of water a day and that it takes 1.4 to 1.6 gallons of municipal water to make a gallon of ultrapure process water1. Sarah Porter of Arizona State University's Kyl Center for Water Policy told The Verge that 15 to 20 percent of TSMC's water is lost to evaporation and that the company recycles 60 to 65 percent at the first fab, aiming for 90 percent reuse by 2028 with an on-site reclamation plant1.
The report said TSMC's complex uses more water in nine days than Project Blue is expected to use in a year, but that chipmaking still creates far more permanent jobs than data centers1. About 70 percent of Arizona water goes to irrigated agriculture, The Verge said1.
