"A simple mechanical permit application would be sufficient for the Luckett Road applicant to transition from dry-air to wet cooling at any point in the facility’s operational life, no public notice, no Planning Commission review, no reassessment of public health impacts."
In conjunction with everything else you've discussed and your scientifically well-researched facts, this paragraph becomes exponentially scarier. Coupling that with the naivete and ignorance Marana’s town leadership consistently demonstrates, their unwillingness to listen to experts, seek additional unbiased outside advice, and consider the potential health risks is gravely concerning. They seem content brushing off potential risks, chalking them up to "leftist" and "extremist" talking points rather than taking them seriously and investigating further in an effort to do right by the people they were elected to represent. It seems like a recipe for a serious problem, and apparently now a problem that may be airborne and aerosolized. Thank you, Colin, for looking into this. It was exceptionally well written, as usual.
I think there are a couple of forces at play that, I agree, make this whole ordeal more nerve-wracking. There is certainly an undeserved confidence in the ordinance and in its ability to protect people, as researched; that is just factually untrue and will cause problems on a number of fronts. The part I'm starting to see come together that I think is worse is that holes are left, essentially intentionally, to provide pathways for the town to try to push developers into paying for infrastructure they can't. Specifically, wastewater treatment.
I went to the budget review this past week to listen, and there was a lot of discussion about how much wastewater treatment facilities are costing now, especially with the PFAS elimination. That problem is only going to get worse, especially with the addition of biocides, chemical inhibitors (especially the copper ones), and additional byproducts from data centers. I feel it is a reasonable leap to conclude that the wastewater loophole was left in place to have data center developers pay for this, so the town doesn't have to solve the problem.
My biggest issue is that these developers are better-capitalized and far better at this than local government officials, and it's going to have complex side effects that will impact people, given the gaps in environmental regulations governing many of these facilities' byproducts. As we have seen, regulations usually take catastrophic incidents and decades to catch up, and we are still incredibly early in this type of infrastructure's lifecycle, which never bodes well for regular folks.
Colin, thank you so much for all this great information. I am in awe of your knowledge and intelligence and I hope that the Town of Marana will start listening and paying attention to what you are reporting.
On a separate note, have you heard how the stricker bill 2873 is doing?
You're welcome and thank you! I am continuing to share the information and plan to press them for more action. So far, they haven't done anything, but I will continue to push.
Regarding the bill, it passed the AZ Senate and was sent to the AZ House, but there have been no further updates. I know Rural AZ is helping to get the word out to keep pressing Gov. Hobbs to veto it if it makes it that far, but nothing more yet.
"A simple mechanical permit application would be sufficient for the Luckett Road applicant to transition from dry-air to wet cooling at any point in the facility’s operational life, no public notice, no Planning Commission review, no reassessment of public health impacts."
In conjunction with everything else you've discussed and your scientifically well-researched facts, this paragraph becomes exponentially scarier. Coupling that with the naivete and ignorance Marana’s town leadership consistently demonstrates, their unwillingness to listen to experts, seek additional unbiased outside advice, and consider the potential health risks is gravely concerning. They seem content brushing off potential risks, chalking them up to "leftist" and "extremist" talking points rather than taking them seriously and investigating further in an effort to do right by the people they were elected to represent. It seems like a recipe for a serious problem, and apparently now a problem that may be airborne and aerosolized. Thank you, Colin, for looking into this. It was exceptionally well written, as usual.
You're welcome!
I think there are a couple of forces at play that, I agree, make this whole ordeal more nerve-wracking. There is certainly an undeserved confidence in the ordinance and in its ability to protect people, as researched; that is just factually untrue and will cause problems on a number of fronts. The part I'm starting to see come together that I think is worse is that holes are left, essentially intentionally, to provide pathways for the town to try to push developers into paying for infrastructure they can't. Specifically, wastewater treatment.
I went to the budget review this past week to listen, and there was a lot of discussion about how much wastewater treatment facilities are costing now, especially with the PFAS elimination. That problem is only going to get worse, especially with the addition of biocides, chemical inhibitors (especially the copper ones), and additional byproducts from data centers. I feel it is a reasonable leap to conclude that the wastewater loophole was left in place to have data center developers pay for this, so the town doesn't have to solve the problem.
My biggest issue is that these developers are better-capitalized and far better at this than local government officials, and it's going to have complex side effects that will impact people, given the gaps in environmental regulations governing many of these facilities' byproducts. As we have seen, regulations usually take catastrophic incidents and decades to catch up, and we are still incredibly early in this type of infrastructure's lifecycle, which never bodes well for regular folks.
Colin, thank you so much for all this great information. I am in awe of your knowledge and intelligence and I hope that the Town of Marana will start listening and paying attention to what you are reporting.
On a separate note, have you heard how the stricker bill 2873 is doing?
You're welcome and thank you! I am continuing to share the information and plan to press them for more action. So far, they haven't done anything, but I will continue to push.
Regarding the bill, it passed the AZ Senate and was sent to the AZ House, but there have been no further updates. I know Rural AZ is helping to get the word out to keep pressing Gov. Hobbs to veto it if it makes it that far, but nothing more yet.