City Council Unanimously REJECTS Data Center Project Reportedly Linked To Amazon

The City of Tucson, Arizona, has rejected a proposed data center, dubbed Project Blue, following intense scrutiny by the local community over concerns about water and energy usage.

A crowd cheered after city council members voted 7-0 to kill the project.

“The counterattack against the technocracy has begun,” The Blaze Senior Editor Daniel Horowitz commented.

The counterattack against the technocracy has begun. https://t.co/oW0pMOG1jH

— Daniel Horowitz (@RMConservative) August 8, 2025

Fox Business provided further details:

Dubbed “Project Blue,” the data center was supposed to be built on 290 acres in Pima County. The county’s board of supervisors approved selling the land north of the Pima County Fairgrounds for the center, but the project still required the city of Tucson’s approval of a development agreement and annexation of the land, local KOLD reported.

Dozens of people filled the city’s council chambers in opposition to the project, which had been proposed by Beale Infrastructure, citing utility usage.

“In addition to the water use, this was a problem because of the energy use,” councilmember Kevin Dahl said during the meeting, according to KOLD.

Local reports say the data center was tied to tech giant Amazon.

“AWS has previously engaged in standard due diligence processes in Arizona, like we do in any geographic location we consider building and operating our infrastructure,” an Amazon Web Services spokesperson said in a statement to FOX Business.

“We do not have any commitments or agreements in place to develop this project and will continue to assess all potential geographic regions to ensure our data center developments provide the best possible product and value for our customers, while bringing positive benefits to the local communities where we operate,” the statement concluded.

“The mysterious company behind the massive Project Blue data center proposed for Tucson is named as Amazon Web Services in a 2023 document about the development obtained through a public records request by Arizona Luminaria,” local outlet Arizona Luminaria wrote last month.

These massive data centers are a major water sink, and tech companies like Amazon, is trying to build their next big one for AWS which will require 2 million gallons of water a day in the Tuscon area.

But yeah, cows are the problem. pic.twitter.com/LLMQEJ0kYb

— The Regenaissance (@_Regenaissance) August 10, 2025

“Data centers require massive amounts of water — some larger ones need millions of gallons daily. As such, the creation of new data centers has raised concerns in places including Atlanta, Denver and Minnesota. Data centers’ cost, in terms of energy and water consumption, may impact consumers,” Government Technology noted.

“Project Blue was a proposed massive and water-devouring $3.6 billion data center connected to Amazon. The city council just shot it down unanimously. Something is changing,” More Perfect Union commented.

Project Blue was a proposed massive and water-devouring $3.6 billion data center connected to Amazon. The city council just shot it down unanimously. Something is changing. https://t.co/OATG2yLjjw

— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) August 6, 2025

More from Arizona Luminaria:

Proponents have cited new jobs and an economic boost as support for the project. Local critics have warned that the project would be a drain on Tucson’s water, energy and environment. They’ve also raised concerns over public officials’ silence on the company behind the project.

County officials have said they are under non-disclosure agreements that kept them from naming the company. Mayor Regina Romero and other city officials who responded Monday to Arizona Luminaria’s questions about the public record naming Amazon Web Services as the company behind the data center said they did not know what company was involved in the project.

Amazon Web Services did not respond to a request for comment from Arizona Luminaria.

The next steps for the project include two public forums in July and a city council meeting in August.

Amazon Web Services is the part of Amazon that runs the internet for a lot of the world. It stores data and hosts websites for everything from blogs to major platforms like Netflix and government agencies.

ADVERTISEMENT