Local opinion: COT's proposed amendments ignore biggest threat to aquifer

Data centers pose a huge threat to our local environment in numerous ways. But the biggest threat is to our water. These large data centers threaten our water both directly and indirectly. When a data center does not use large amounts of water onsite, but instead requires another entity (such as a utility) to greatly increase its water usage, that is referred to as an "indirect" use of water, because it is still the data center that is requiring the other entity to increase its water usage. The other entity in this case is TEP.

Here's the problem. Roughly 86 percent of TEP's local generation of electricity comes from generators that burn fossil fuels and fracked gas. These generators require an enormous amount of water just to cool them. TEP gets this water directly from our aquifer, not through Tucson Water, but through its own wells, so it pays nothing to Tucson or Pima County for its consumption of our water, and Tucson Water has no say in how much water TEP draws from our aquifer.

The amount of electricity required to air-condition a large data center is also quite large. In fact, it is massive. The additional electricity TEP will need to generate for the data center's air conditioning will require TEP to use even more water to cool its generators than the water the data center would have used if it had gone with onsite evaporative cooling. That is a very large amount of water.

Yet the city's proposed amendments regarding requirements for data centers completely ignore this. It is not even mentioned.

In fact, even without a data center, TEP's longstanding refusal to take significant, timely steps to convert from its water-intensive burning of fossil fuels and gas to solar and wind energy sources (which use zero water), makes it clear that any major increase in the need for electricity anywhere in Pima County will greatly increase TEP's drain on our aquifer. It will also increase TEP's drain on our bank accounts (but that's another story, and too long for this article).

So, the city of Tucson should be proposing amendments that address this issue directly. After all, water is our most precious and most endangered resource. The following requirements are a minimum of what must be enacted, just to protect our water supply:

1. Data centers and any industry, business or development that will likely require a significantly large increase in either direct or indirect use of water are prohibited from using water for cooling on or off-site.

2. Data centers and any industry, business or development that will likely require a significantly large increase in either direct or indirect use of water must supply all of their own energy exclusively via solar and batteries, and must do so entirely onsite.

These two amendments will keep data centers and any other industry, business or development from being able to directly or indirectly dry up our aquifer. Please let the mayor, council members and city manager know what you think about this crucial issue. And note that if we replace TEP with a publicly owned electric utility, “public power,” we could shave years off the switch to solar and wind.