"Project Blue"

VERIFIED_PRIMARY

Pima County's Project Blue FAQ places the campus on a 290-acre parcel west of Houghton Road, immediately north of the Pima County Fairgrounds, inside the Southeast Employment & Logistics Center (SELC), currently in unincorporated Pima County and south of Interstate 10.

Key data: 290-ac parcel, west of Houghton Road, immediately north of the Pima County Fairgrounds, within the SELC

Limitation: No street address or APN published; an aggregator describes the area as S Harrison Rd / E Brekke Rd / S Houghton Rd 85747 (DISCOVERY_LEAD): https://www.datacentermap.com/usa/arizona/tucson/project-blue/

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"The Arizona Corporation Commission voted 4-1 ... to approve" the ESA; applications for rehearing "deemed automatically denied", so "The Commission Decision therefore stands without revision"

Key data: Up to 286 MW of capacity; 10-year agreement with load ramp over 18 months

Status date: Approved December 3, 2025; rehearing applications denied per ACC statement dated January 21, 2026

Limitation: Acreage and square footage not stated. The ACC page notes "Pima County approved the zoning for a data center" but gives no county case number; the underlying eDocket filings at edocket.azcc.gov were not opened in this session.

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Data retrieved

The Project Blue block group near the Pima County Fairgrounds screens very low on EJ indexes — among the least burdened sites screened — despite being the most politically contested project in Arizona.

Key data: BG 040190041091: 21.9% people of color, $87,179 median HH income; US pctiles 4/5/23/48/17/20; state PM2.5 pctile 14

Status date: 2026-08-29

Limitation: Same caveats. Reinforces that EJ screening and civic conflict are weakly correlated.

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Disclosed in county response

A Pima County Regional Wastewater Reclamation Department site-query response gives the most precise multi-phase water demand projection found in any state: a twelvefold increase across 2026–2035.

Key data: Industrial water demand **29.38 → 352.62 million gallons per year**; max day **0.45 → 5.41 MGD**, phased 2026–2035

Status date: 2025-08

Limitation: Document is a county form response obtained and hosted by a news outlet, marked confidential; it reflects developer-supplied projections. Developer commits to a 100% reclaimed-water pipeline at its own expense per the [City of Tucson fact sheet (PDF)](https://www.tucsonaz.gov/files/sharedassets/public/v/1/government/city-manager-office/documents/project-blue-updated-fact-sheet_250714.pdf), though opponents say potable water would be used for the first two years.

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Dismissed

The No Desert Data Center Coalition, represented by the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest, sued Pima County in Superior Court alleging inadequate public notice of how far planning had progressed. **A judge dismissed the suit in April 2026.**

Key data: Complaint filed 2026-01-14 in Pima County Superior Court; land sale was a **290-acre** parcel approved **3-2**; suit **dismissed** 2026-04-13

Status date: 2026-04-13

Limitation: Filing details from [AZ Luminaria](https://azluminaria.org/2026/01/14/project-blue-opponents-sue-pima-county-over-alleged-open-meeting-law-violations/) and [AZBEX](https://azbex.com/legislation-issues/activists-sue-over-project-blue/); vote count from [Arizona Daily Star](https://tucson.com/news/local/government-politics/article_b7e0a874-021f-406b-9722-7c8ef05bf476.html). Case number not obtained; appeal status unknown.

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Rejected

Tucson's City Council unanimously rejected the original Project Blue site before the project relocated to unincorporated Pima County land.

Key data: Unanimous rejection 2025-08-06

Status date: 2025-08-06

Limitation: Advocacy source; council vote not confirmed from City of Tucson minutes this session.

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Testimony taken

The ACC heard roughly two hours of largely opposed public testimony before approving the energy supply agreement.

Key data: ~2 hours of mostly-opposed public testimony

Status date: 2025-12

Limitation: Speaker counts and content not itemized.

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