Mesa City Council Wants to Build a Data Center: Here’s Why We Can’t Let Them
by Mary-Elizabeth Meagher, written exclusively for Mesa Valley Indivisible
Each time you ask ChatGPT a question, order a takeout meal from DoorDash, stream a TV show on Netflix, or plug a destination into your mobile GPS, there’s a data center humming behind the scenes to process that information and generate an outcome.
Data centers, in their modern iteration, have been around since the internet boom of the 1990s. For the past 30 years, these buildings have functioned as the physical infrastructure that stores, computes, and ultimately, disseminates all of our virtual data across networks. They also run the software applications we use on a daily basis—from email servers and social media platforms to the word processor I am currently writing this article on.
Data centers aren’t new, but the national conversation around them recently hit a fever pitch for one reason in particular: Artificial intelligence. As the development of AI continues to accelerate, this momentum requires more data centers to fuel those programs.
AI is transforming the size, scope, and services of data center facilities across the U.S. In fact, as of September 2026, this country has a total of 3,586 data centers, along with another 2,231 planned for construction. Combined, these facilities will run on an estimated capacity of 387,336 megawatts. That’s a massive amount of electricity, but to break it down into concrete terms, one megawatt can power about 1,000 homes. So the number of megawatts to keep even one data center operational is enough to continuously power 100,000 homes.
It’s not difficult to see how this energy output will drain critical resources and further exacerbate climate issues, which has major implications for local communities—including here in Mesa. On May 13, 2026, the Mesa Planning and Zoning Board quietly passed a unanimous vote in favor of a 2,257,581-square-foot data center campus to be built at the corner of South Crismon and East Pecos Roads. The project, known as NTT Mesa PH10, will encompass seven buildings and two power substations across a $300 million land acquisition.
This behemoth of a complex—slated to open its first phase in November 2028—is owned by NTT Global Centers, a Japanese telecommunications conglomerate. But in their efforts to move the project forward, Mesa City Council has ignored objections from those whom this data center will affect: Mesa residents. Notice how I used “quietly” to describe the initial vote. It took place entirely outside of public view. We the taxpayers were not consulted.
During these last few months, Mesa Valley Indivisible has compiled a trail of evidence, clearly documenting both Mayor Mark Freeman and the Mesa City Council’s efforts to silence residents who voice complaints about the data center. Visit this link to learn more about those systematic attacks on our community’s First Amendment rights. But if construction of NTT Mesa PH10 goes into effect, it won’t only be free speech that suffers.
We touched on the immense levels of energy consumption data centers expend, but this is just one of many environmental impacts the NTT Mesa PH10 project would usher in. When a data center uses electricity to process information from AI queries, it simultaneously uses water to cool internal software chips, so the machinery will not overheat. A mid-size facility consumes about 110 million gallons of water each year, while a large facility consumes 1.8 billion gallons. That is a problem anywhere—but it’s a grave concern in Arizona.
Earlier in 2026, substantial cuts were made to Arizona’s Colorado River allocation, resulting in a loss of 760,000 acre-feet, which will reduce our current water supply from 2.8 million acre-feet of the Colorado River to two million acre-feet in 2027. This depletion of such an essential resource simply cannot afford to be stretched even thinner by a data center, which could use up to five million gallons of water over the course of a single day.
Data centers are notorious for air pollution, too. Since these facilities need a robust, reliable power source, many operate on gas-fired equipment, as well as diesel backup generators. A joint study from scientists at Caltech and University of California Riverside estimates the sheer amount of data center-harnessed power to train new AI models can equal the carbon emissions of 10,000 round trips by car from New York City to Los Angeles.
As the researchers warn, all that air pollution is on track to contribute to 1,300 annual premature deaths across the U.S. by 2030, along with a $20 billion increase in public health costs each year due to cancer, asthma, or other respiratory illnesses.
We also have to talk about noise pollution because all the machines and technologies to keep these buildings functional are loud. Between cooling fans, HVAC units, gas turbines, backup generators, and computer servers, data center facilities produce a constant buzz of low- and high-frequency noise 24 hours a day. Some of this noise can reach up to 96 decibels, which is over 30 decibels higher than a safe volume for human ears.
Folks who live near data centers often report headaches, ear pain, nausea, sleep disruptions, anxiety, vertigo, and hypertension from the continual noise pollution. In other words, it’s us—the community members—who will shoulder the harms of this data center expansion.
Case in point: Both the industrial footprint and technological infrastructure required to operate these facilities directly correlates with increasing utility bills. As a result, the cost of electricity is projected to escalate anywhere from 15%–40% by 2030.
One in six Americans are behind on their utility bills (in particular, marginalized folks who often spend 20% of their income on energy alone). Our nation is in the trenches of an affordability crisis, which data centers will only worsen. Here in Mesa, utility costs hover around $266.56 per month, on average—consider how NTT Mesa PH10 would exacerbate that figure even more. We never asked for this, nor must we accept it as a foregone conclusion.
As a unified collective, we can take action to hold Mesa City Council accountable for voting on a project that will cause environmental, physical, and financial harm. Check out the “NO to NTT Mesa PH10” campaign tab on the Mesa Valley Indivisible website for more details on how we can band together to halt construction on this data center monstrosity.
And just one final word of caution…think twice before automatically reaching for AI tools like ChatGPT. They might be convenient and accessible, but they’re also responsible for data centers becoming so rampant (not to mention, largely unchecked).
