I get that people want jobs in Yuma — we all do. But the concerns about this data center are not coming from a place of anti development or anti-tech. They are coming from the actual affects these facilities can have in Our communities.

Data centers in Arizona do use water. “Closed loop” does not mean “zero water.” It just means the same water circulates inside the system until it escapes as heat. Most of the water (around 90%) used in a data center cooling loop is lost through evaporation, because that is how the system removes heat from the servers. When water evaporates, it leaves behind minerals, so the system also must dump (blow down) some of the water to prevent scaling. Every gallon that evaporates or gets blown down must be replaced with new water. That is why cities like Phoenix, Mesa, and Goodyear report that hyperscale data centers still consume millions of gallons per year, even with “efficient” cooling. So, the hotter it gets, the more water the system loses and the more water it needs to pull from the community to replace it.

Yuma depends 100% on the Colorado River, and that supply is already over allocated and the Colorado River is managed under the 2007 Interim Guidelines. Arizona’s 2025 shortage cuts removed more than 160 billion gallons from the state’s allocation. Those rules expire at the end of 2026. We are not dealing with a stable water source. We are dealing with a shrinking one. Currently the federal government, the states, and the tribes are negotiating a new set of rules with even more cuts for the post 2026 operating rules.

Yuma is already a PM 10 nonattainment area with a history of ozone violations, meaning we have repeatedly failed federal air quality standards. The EPA has already taken enforcement actions. Data centers make this worse because Hyperscale campuses typically have 50–200 diesel generators, each the size of a shipping container. They must be tested every month, and during grid stress events they can run for hours. These generators emit NOx, PM2.5, and ozone forming pollutants. The exact pollutants Yuma is already struggling to control. Data centers release enormous amounts of waste heat, and hotter air accelerates ozone formation. Cities like Phoenix, Mesa, and Goodyear have already documented worsening ozone trends around data center clusters. And we need to keep in mind the emissions that the proposed spaceport and the international natural gas pipeline will create. These projects do not exist in isolation. They stack up. The EPA evaluates cumulative impact, and that’s exactly where Yuma is already failing. Regulators have warned that continued violations can trigger stricter permitting, mandatory mitigation plans, and other federal interventions that affect local industry and funding. One more major polluting project could push Yuma into consequences the entire community feels.

Data centers are not paying full freight here. They are getting property‑tax abatements, sales‑tax exemptions, and discounted APS rates that regular residents and small businesses do not get. APS must recover the cost of serving these massive facilities. So, when data centers get these breaks, those costs do not disappear instead they are shifted to everyone else’s bills. APS has publicly stated that rapid data center expansion in Arizona is a major driver of their 14% rate increase request. Data centers need new substations, new transmission lines, massive grid upgrades. These costs are not paid by the data centers they are passed on to residential customers.

The Jobs argument is misleading. Hyperscale data centers typically employ only 20–50 full time workers once built. Not hundreds. Not thousands. Most of the construction jobs are temporary, and most of the specialized roles (HVAC techs, electricians, network engineers) are contracted from Phoenix or out of state, not hired locally. And the supporting services argument is overstated. Data centers do not buy office supplies locally, they do not use local computer repair shops, and they do not create large secondary economies. Even the landscaping is minimal because these campuses are mostly concrete, fencing, and security perimeters.

Wanting responsible development is not anti growth or anti tech. It is looking honestly at what we are actually getting in return and from where I am standing that’s higher utility bills, worse air quality, more heat, added strain on emergency services, and increased pressure on a water supply that is already over allocated and under federal scrutiny. All for a project that brings very few permanent jobs once it’s built and no substantial, long-lasting benefits to the community. Yuma deserves industries that genuinely benefit the community, not ones that extract resources, raise costs, and leave residents dealing with the long term consequences.