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By that, I mean that we’re going to have to super-treat reclaimed water — previously used water that may even have been flushed — for drinking water. It’s actually happening already.

using such water starting in 2023 as a demonstration. up to drinking standard for years, but doesn’t yet send it straight to taps, instead pumping it into the ground to recharge the aquifer. for these treatment plants.

ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Water is planning an $87 million advanced water purification center for treating reclaimed water and delivering it straight to consumers. After it opens, hopefully in 2031, it is expected to provide 2-3% of the water consumed in the system.

“It not only allows ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Water but our other Southern ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ utilities to have advanced water purification like this,â€� ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Water Director John Kmiec said Friday. “It will allow us to train others.â€�

But that clear message about the value of reclaimed water is becoming muddy as we enter the age of . That’s the mega-data-center project proposed for the southeast side that could ultimately have up to 10 massive data centers, averaging 225,000 square feet and requiring vast but unknown quantities of water for cooling.

The whole project hinges on a reclaimed water project and treats this source as if it isn’t a huge pool of potential drinking water. The developers, Beale Infrastructure, have proposed to build an 18-mile pipeline to bring reclaimed water from the regional wastewater treatment facility on the northwest side, all the way across ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ to the new data complex near the Pima County fairgrounds on the southeast side.

My colleague Tony Davis reported that, once construction of the data centers is completed, it will take another 2-3 years before the pipeline is done. During the interim, the data centers would be using regular potable water, which is a problem when you consider how much water these complexes use.

It varies, but as the , each data center could use from 300,000 to 5 million gallons of water a day. And after that, when it is on reclaimed water, that is still potential drinking water going to this industrial use.

‘One Water’ or not?

ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ and ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ water authorities have been telling us for years to get used to the idea of drinking purified, reclaimed water. ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s long-term water plan is even called — the idea being that all water sources are valued and part of an integrated system. No water is waste water.

And yet now, with billions in investment and potential piles of tax revenue for local government on the line, we are being asked to see ‘reclaimed water� as categorically different from potable, not a source of future potable water. Throughout the documentation Pima County provided before the Board of Supervisors voted to approve the project in June, this old-fashioned categorization continued.

“Industrial process would ultimately rely solely on reclaimed water via a phased approach,� . “Project Blue would propose to fund significant reclaimed water infrastructure expansion to deliver new non-potable resources to the region, including over-sizing to accommodate future customers and projects,�

In other words, the infrastructure built for Project Blue could also spread the use of reclaimed water to new industrial projects. That’s not a bad thing unless we don’t have enough water to use this way.

And for now, we simply don’t know how much Project Blue would use or what the potential other uses are.

Specifics must be known

ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Water says it has sufficient reclaimed water to supply Project Blue, and Kmiec noted a lot of reclaimed water goes unused now.

“Once that water goes past Trico gage, it’s lost,� Kmiec said, referring to a spot where reclaimed water enters the Santa Cruz River bed.

But when I talked with Lisa Shipek about reclaimed water, she said that’s exactly what one of the main purposes of reclaimed water should be: Sustaining our riparian ecosystems and filtering into their groundwater basins.

“These rivers used to have seasonal and perennial flows, and rivers are a great place to have natural recharge,� said Shipek, executive director of the . “It’s not lost. It’s a great benefit to the riparian ecosystem and as recharge.�

So that’s another use reclaimed water could be put to, if it’s not drinking water, and if it’s not diverted to cool data centers or serve other industrial projects.

Maybe we have enough for all those uses. It is essential to know the precise numbers before the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ City Council makes the next key decision about Project Blue, not just to accept vague assurances.

For now, most council members have expressed skepticism about the project for a variety of reasons. As they should: This is not just water that will go to waste if it’s not used to cool data centers.

It’s water that we could be drinking in the near future.