TSMC, a major water consumer, draws no criticism, while AI data centers that use less water provoke outrage among Americans?

Why is TSMC, a major water consumer, not criticized, while AI data centers that use less water anger Americans? Phoenix Tech Download the app for exclusive early access October 30, 2026 08:33:01 From Beijing Updated October 30, 2026 08:39:21

Phoenix Tech News, October 30 (Beijing Time) — U.S. tech media outlet The Verge recently published an article stating that with the rapid expansion of the artificial intelligence industry, more and more residents in Arizona are beginning to worry that data centers will compete with them for already strained water resources.

This state, long plagued by drought, welcomed TSMC's construction of a plant, attracting the chip industry and job opportunities. Now, as larger-scale data center projects arrive one after another, opposition voices that cut across political lines have emerged locally.

The following is the main content of the article.

"Not a Drop of Water for Data"

On an evening in August this year, on the outskirts of Tucson, Arizona, a group of residents gathered near a construction site to oppose developer Beale Infrastructure's plan to build a large data center there.

The sun gradually set, and the weather remained hot. Organizers periodically reminded people to drink water, and someone brought beverages to share. Protesters held hand-drawn signs warning that the data center would "suck our water dry."

In Arizona, water is a topic that is hard to avoid. According to The Verge's report, the state faces severe drought, and its allocation share from the Colorado River will be reduced by nearly 30%.

About 70% of Tucson's water supply comes from the Colorado River. For years, the city has prepared for water shortages through conservation and groundwater recharge. But in the view of some residents, the saved water should be left for local families and future generations, not used to support the expansion of tech companies.

"No Desert Data Center Coalition," with the slogan "Not a Drop of Water for Data"

The local opposition group "No Desert Data Center Coalition" put forward a concise slogan: "Not a drop of water for data."

First promised to build a pipeline, later switched to pumping groundwater

The controversial data center project is called "Project Blue," planned for Pima County on the outskirts of Tucson, covering about 290 acres, with a planned scale of 600 megawatts.

The project initially presented attractive economic prospects to the local government. According to the developer, it would create about 3,000 temporary jobs during construction, provide 200 high-paying positions after completion, and bring about $152 million in tax revenue over the next decade.

But the initial information disclosure about the project made some residents uneasy. The local government signed a confidentiality agreement with the developer, and it was initially difficult for the public to know the specific company behind the project and the water use arrangements.

Protesters question the long-term feasibility of building a water- and power-intensive facility in the Tucson desert

In July 2025, Beale held an information session attended by about 200 people. A second meeting attracted more than 1,000 people, and as soon as the developer's representative began the introduction, boos came continuously from the crowd.

Facing outside concerns about water use, Beale had promised to build at its own expense a pipeline of about 18 miles to bring reclaimed water into the water supply system. Under the original plan, the data center would use drinking water before the pipeline was completed, then switch to reclaimed water, with excess water also usable to recharge the underground aquifer.

This plan required the City of Tucson to approve the relevant land and provide water service. After local opposition continued to grow, Tucson did not approve the plan, and Beale turned to the county government to advance the project and abandoned the pipeline plan.

After that, relevant departments approved the construction of wells at the project site, allowing the project to extract up to 31 million gallons of groundwater per year, about 117,000 cubic meters. A Beale spokesperson said this water would be used only for construction, and that once the data center is operational, water use would be limited to daily needs such as restrooms, the employee kitchen, and health and safety.

Beale also adjusted the cooling plan, abandoning water cooling in favor of closed-loop air cooling. According to reports, this change caused Amazon Web Services, the cloud computing unit that might otherwise have been a customer, to withdraw from the project because air-cooled facilities could not meet its needs. Beale declined to say whether it had found a new customer.

Opponents still have doubts. They believe air cooling may increase electricity use, and the power generation process may also consume water resources. Beale denies that the air-cooling plan will increase the project's overall energy consumption.

Construction of the project has already begun, but resistance has not disappeared. The construction contractor once used municipal fire hydrants to draw water for dust suppression, drawing residents' attention. Local officials subsequently required Beale to provide corresponding water credits to compensate for the approximately 650,000 gallons of drinking water used during construction. Beale said the contractor obtained a temporary water use permit in accordance with normal procedures.

In September this year, the Pima County Board of Supervisors imposed a 120-day moratorium on approvals for new data center projects. However, this decision did not halt the already advancing Project Blue.

Opposing data centers brings people of different positions together

Marana, about 20 miles northwest of Tucson, is also experiencing similar controversy.

Beale plans to develop a data center campus of about 600 acres there, some of the land previously used for agriculture. The developer says the project could bring $407 million in tax revenue over the next decade, more than one-third of which would go directly to the town of Marana.

The local government had previously introduced restrictive measures requiring that data centers not use the town's water supply to feed their cooling systems, and that they meet design, noise and power supply requirements. Beale said the Marana project, once completed, would use about 6.6 million gallons of water per year.

Supporters hope the project will bring tax revenue and jobs, and some union members also spoke in favor of the project at town council meetings. Opponents worry that the data center will change the town's environment and consume resources while yielding limited long-term employment benefits.

Jackie McGuire, whom some call a "pink-haired libertarian," was elected to the Marana Town Council on the strength of her opposition to the data center.

Cybersecurity analyst Jackie McGuire is one of the opponents. She moved to Marana from California 15 years ago and is raising her children here. She told The Verge that she worries the data center will damage the living environment that drew her to stay in the town.

Residents once collected about 2,800 signatures hoping to hold a referendum on the data center, but the town government rejected it on procedural grounds. Some opponents then decided to run for town council, and McGuire ultimately won election.

She told reporters that she heard some politically conservative residents say that although they might not ordinarily support a pink-haired liberal, they were willing to vote for her in order to oppose the data center.

TSMC uses nearly 5 million gallons of water a day, so why is it more welcome?

While the data center faces resistance, another tech company that consumes even more water has been received quite warmly in Arizona.

At TSMC's Arizona headquarters in Phoenix, this semiconductor manufacturing plant has more than 3,500 employees.

The chip manufacturing campus TSMC is building in Phoenix uses about 4.75 million gallons of water per day through the municipal water system, roughly 18,000 cubic meters. Chip manufacturing requires large amounts of ultrapure water to repeatedly clean wafers.

Paul Westerhoff, director of the Global Water Technology Center at Arizona State University, told The Verge that each chip needs to go through 50 to 250 cleaning steps. During manufacturing, even tiny particles or impurities can affect chip performance.

However, water use and final consumption are not exactly the same. Sarah Porter, a water policy expert at Arizona State University, said that about 60% to 65% of the water used at TSMC's first factory in Arizona is recycled. The company plans to raise the recycling rate to 90% by 2028.

TSMC's economic contribution is also an important reason local officials are willing to accept it.

According to The Verge, TSMC has more than 3,500 employees in Arizona. As the factory was built, the area also attracted suppliers, food service businesses and other supporting operations. Real estate agent Rebecca Chen has likewise seen more clients from TSMC and its supply chain.

Christine Mackay, a Phoenix economic development official, was involved in attracting TSMC to build in the area. She summed up the issue as the economic value of each gallon of water. In her view, the jobs and industrial activity TSMC brings are enough to justify the value of that resource investment.

Construction work at TSMC's Arizona headquarters is still continuing in Phoenix.

The bigger water user is agriculture in the desert

The Verge's report points out that blaming Arizona's water shortage solely on data centers would overlook the local industry that has used water for longer and on a larger scale.

In this desert state, irrigated agriculture is estimated to account for about 70% of total water use. Crops such as cotton, citrus and alfalfa used to feed livestock have long depended on large amounts of water.

The report said that the Saudi agricultural company Fondomonte once grew alfalfa in Arizona and shipped the feed overseas. The company's water use in 2023 was about 11 billion gallons, far higher than the 31 million gallons of groundwater Project Blue is permitted to pump each year during construction.

However, these figures come from different locations and different water sources, and their uses and time frames also differ, so they cannot simply be added together or used to directly infer a particular data center's impact on the local water supply.

Arizona's giant saguaro cacti need very little water, yet they are now gradually dying.

Water policy expert Porter believes that some of Arizona's long-standing agricultural water practices are unsustainable. From the perspective of economic output, data centers and chip manufacturing may be another way to use water resources.

But for many residents, agriculture's water problems do not dispel their concerns about new projects. They have already worked to reduce household water use, and now they face new large industrial facilities. Even if projects promise water savings, people want to know whether water supply will still be assured in the coming decades.

Beyond water quantity, residents also worry about water quality

The controversy brought by chip factories is not only about water consumption.

The Verge points out that semiconductor manufacturing uses a variety of fluorine-containing chemicals, some of which are per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, collectively known as PFAS, that are difficult to break down in the natural environment. These substances are also found in many everyday products, and some PFAS exposure has been linked to health risks.

An irrigation canal that is part of a central Arizona project carrying water from the Colorado River to Phoenix.

Local environmentalists worry that industrial wastewater, if improperly treated, could further worsen groundwater contamination. The Tucson area and surrounding regions have already had groundwater contamination problems caused by military facilities and manufacturing in the past, and cleanup is still ongoing.

TSMC says it has been improving its internal PFAS detection systems, developing technology to remove related substances from wastewater, and researching the use of alternative materials in manufacturing. Porter said Phoenix requires TSMC to treat wastewater before discharging it into the municipal sewage system.

For Arizona, tech investment has brought new jobs, businesses and tax revenue. For local residents, the question has therefore become more concrete.

They want economic development, and they also want the water saved over many years to be left for their own families. As new data centers continue to push into the desert, how to balance these two expectations still has no answer that satisfies all parties. (Author/Yu Lei)

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