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BUSINESS
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Unique water plant enabling Intel’s massive expansion
BY KEN SAIN
Tribune Staff Writer
Intel’s groundbreaking ceremony for the $20 billion expansion of the Ocotillo campus in Chandler brought out all the top officials last month.
Chandler’s mayor and most of the city council were there. So were Gov. Doug Ducey and U.S. Rep Greg Stanton’s staff. Intel CEO, Patrick Gelsinger was the star attraction. But it’s unlikely any of them would have been there until Intel overcame one key issue to doing business in the desert: Water.
It takes a lot of water to run a manufacturing plant. In addition to the potable water needed for a workforce of several thousands, they also need a lot of water for their cooling towers.
“This particular expansion, the additional [water] demand for its size was actually lower than other expansions,” said John Knudson, public works and utilities director for the city. “And the reason for that is because their recycling capability that they’re developing through the W.A.T.R.” W.A.T.R. is Intel’s water treatment and recycling facility and company officials say it’s truly groundbreaking. Knudson said without it, the expansion and all those thousands of jobs would likely not be coming to Chandler.
This is the second such facility Intel has built in the U.S., the first being in Oregon. Intel has had a water treatment and recycling facility on the campus before. What makes W.A.T.R. different? “A typical industry like Intel will treat their water to what they call industrial pre-treatment standards and then they send that water on to the municipality where it has further treatment, and then can be reused,” said Todd Brady, Intel’s director of public affairs and sustainability. “In this case, we’ve actually invested in a Intel employees Steve Rossow, left, and Mara Howell inspect the company’s water recycling facility at its Ronler Acres campus in Hillsboro,
Oregon. (Walden Kirsch/Intel Corporation)
water reclaim system where we can treat that water to standards that we can directly reuse that water again at Intel.”
So, city facilities are no longer needed to treat a lot of water.
“It’s literally millions of gallons of water a day that we can reuse back here at Intel.” Intel’s W.A.T.R. facility in Hillsboro, Oregon, surpassed one billion gallons of water treated less than a year after it became operational. Brady said the Chandler facility became operational earlier this year.
The expanded facilities mean Intel can treat nine million gallons of water each day that it can then reuse.
“Intel is taking extraordinary steps to return nearly all the water it uses during construction of these plants,” Ducey said during the groundbreaking. “This is essential for Arizona’s water future, and it lays out a blueprint for conservation strategies for future construction projects.” Dominic Greensmith is overseeing construction of the two new fabs for Intel’s expansion. With construction now underway, he said they expect production of semiconductors to start in 2024. “It’s a tight deadline, but we’ve done this a number of times,” Greensmith said. He said he plans to hire between 3,000-5,000 construction workers. Greensmith said they should be able to make the deadline despite a nationwide slowdown in construction because of a lack of supplies and workers. “We planned for that,” he said.
Chandler’s Knudson said the city and Intel have been talking for years to try and overcome problems as the company’s facility grew, and finding a solution for its water needs was one of the biggest issues they faced. “As opposed to paying us to go out and find more water, which often is unavailable, they chose the correct path, which was to recycle water and return it back to the facility, reducing their overall need.”
Intel’s Brady said it is just one step the company is taking to deal with water. Others include encouraging farmers to switch from flood to drip irrigation, repairing old irrigation systems and urging farmers to switch to plants that require less water. “We’re investing outside the company to help others use less water and put more water back into things like the Colorado River and other watersheds,” Brady said. ■
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Why get vaccinated? It’s about ‘optional danger’
BY DAVID LEIBOWITZ
Tribune Columnist
You get a few years under your belt, you develop a few pet theories about how to live your life. One of my favorites concerns the avoidance of what I call “optional danger.”
It’s a simple construct: Life is a fairly dangerous proposition, given that none of us gets out alive. So I avoid taking deathdefying risks on purpose.
I don’t bungee jump, hang-glide or heliski. Nor will I ever parachute out of a perfectly functioning airplane for kicks. And I do my best to keep it to about 85 miles an hour on wide-open freeways in broad daylight (Note: This newspaper does not advocate breaking the law. Your results may vary).
I’m not a fanatic about the optional danger thing – I drink Diet Coke, which can’t be good for me and I used to own a motorcycle – but I tend to stick with it as a general rule.
That’s why I made an appointment to head to CVS for a COVID-19 booster vaccination this week. The rationale? The first two Pfizer shots seemed to work well. I had no side effects. And to my knowledge, I haven’t gotten COVID-19 yet. I’m eligible for the shot because I have asthma and it’s free, so why not?
My guess: About 20 percent of you reading this at home are saying, “Because you’re an idiot, that’s why not.”
I’m basing this estimate on the multiple polls I’ve read about Americans’ willingness to get vaccinated at this point in the pandemic.
The breakdown: About seven in 10 of us have gotten at least one shot. Another eight percent say they plan to get it. Two percent say they’re still not sure. And the remaining 20 percent say, “Hell no, over my dead body.”
I have quite a few friends who haven’t been vaccinated, and we’ve talked it through. While a few view the decision as a way of asserting their freedom, most explain their choice with a riff on my optional danger theory.
Except for them, the risk in question isn’t COVID-19, it’s what’s in the vaccine.
One friend explained it like so: “Of course I trust science. But there’s never been a study of the long-term effects of this vaccine. So who knows what it’s going to do to you in 10 years? I’m pretty young and I’m in good health, no immune issues. The chances of COVID killing me are slim. So why risk it?”
I can understand his logic. Last year, COVID killed about 370,000 Americans. So far this year, it’s been blamed for another 325,000 deaths. That’s about twotenths of a percentage point of the total U.S. population.
In contrast, heart disease kills about 660,000 people a year nationwide. Even so, McDonald’s sold $40 billion worth of artery-clogging crap in the U.S. last year.
For me, the optional danger of dying in a pandemic outweighs the risk of the vaccine. At the same time, I went to a concert – sans mask – with 15,000 fellow fans of The Eagles last week.
As it turned out, the band required each attendee to produce proof of vaccination at the gate, which created a lot of drama in line at the arena downtown.
When I told my unvaccinated buddy about the requirement, he was offended. I get it – no one likes to be singled out. But for me, it’s like the Eagles hit says: I get a peaceful, easy feeling whenever I avoid optional danger. ■
Protestors’ harassment giving Sinema an education
BY JD HAYWORTH Tribune Columnist
Last week, this column chronicled a curious confrontation on the Tempe campus of Arizona State University, involving harassment of two white students by black students affiliated with the Multicultural Solidarity Coalition.
Observers may be forgiven if they now choose to designate ASU as a “confrontation center,” especially upon hearing the news of another display of intrusion and incivility at the downtown campus involving Sen. Kyrsten Sinema.
She was followed into a restroom at University Center by a group of activists affiliated with Living United for Change in Arizona -- LUCHA Oct. 3. Not content with merely confronting Sinema, LUCHA members recorded the interaction for social media.
The twittersphere has been chirping since LUCHA Arizona posted the “production.”
It opens with Sinema telling her class, “I’ll be back,” then walking out of the room and right into the group of LUCHA agitators. The word “lucha” means “fight” in Spanish, but Sinema appears to be intent on answering nature’s call, instead of in a “fight or flight” mode.
The activists were just as intent on confrontation and follow Sen. Sinema into the restroom, with one female protestor walking right up to the door of the stall that the officeholder enters. That protestor, who subsequently identified herself as Sophia Marjanovic, is seen facing the closed stall, insisting that “we need solutions, [like] the ‘Build Back Better’ plan.”
The $3.5 billion monstrosity of a bill called “Build Back Better,” which Sinema opposes, includes (surprise!) a provision for mass amnesty. That prompts a protestor, a self-admitted illegal immigrant and the young lady known only as Blanca to warn Sen. Sinema: “We got you elected, and…we can get you out of office if you don’t support what you promised us.”
Though Blanca cites possible political consequences for Sinema, and complains about the deportation of her grandparents, she is careful not to mention if she has ever cast a ballot in any Arizona election, knowing that such an admission could lead to her own prosecution.
Blanca and other LUCHA protestors could eventually face prosecution for their own recordings of Sen. Sinema’s restroom visit. ASU Public Information Officer Adam Wolfe confirms that a probe of the video ambush is underway.
Times appear to be getting tougher for Sinema – at least when it comes to continued support from her base. Another illegal conducted her own video ambush of Sinema on a flight to Washington, and a group of protestors “greeted” her at Reagan National Airport.
When asked by a reporter if protestors’ tactics were appropriate, Joe Biden responded: “I don’t think they are appropriate tactics, but it happens to everybody. The only people it doesn’t happen to are people who have Secret Service standing around them. It’s part of the process.”
The process of a political education is ongoing…akin to “lifetime learning.” Former Senator Dennis DeConcini once offered a bit of bipartisan advice to this columnist: “Running for office is a real education… you always learn something new.”
What has Sinema learned in recent days?
Perhaps that her emulation of DeConcini’s penchant for deliberation and the late John McCain’s maverick maneuverings prompt impassioned disagreements from those ideologically closest to her.
And perhaps that her political longevity can be found in attracting unaffiliated voters or “soft Republicans” to support her in future campaigns.
So, look for Kyrsten to develop a new lecture for her ASU students: “Dancing with them that brung you…A Rationale for Revision.”
And undoubtedly, she will revise her schedule for bathroom breaks. ■
